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The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) was proud to be a co-organizer of a special street-naming ceremony in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo on Wednesday honoring late Holocaust survivor Ana Vinocur.
This is believed to be the first time a street has been named for a female Jewish Holocaust survivor in all of South America.
Vinocur was born in Łódź, Poland, in 1926. The Nazis invaded Poland just before her 13th birthday, and she was confined to the Łódź Ghetto. Vinocur later survived both the Auschwitz and Stutthof concentration camps, before her liberation in 1945. After the war, she moved to Uruguay, where she spent the rest of her life and gained renown as an award-winning writer and singer.
The street named for Vinocur, who passed away in 2006, runs along the Montevideo Bay shoreline and ends at the Punta Carretas lighthouse.
Wednesday’s street-naming ceremony was attended by more than 700 guests, including national and local government officials, diplomats, Jewish community members, students, and journalists.
Among the speakers were Ana Vinocur’s daughter, Rita Vinocur, president of the Holocaust Remembrance Center of Uruguay; Federico Graña, interim intendant of Montevideo; Matilde Antia, mayor of the CH municipality; and Roby Schindler, president of the Central Israelite Committee of Uruguay.
Rita Vinocur recalled the nobility of her mother’s character. “The fire of evil could not destroy it,” she said. “No matter the pain, one can live with dignity.”
Graña said that humanity agreed following the Holocaust that “there were things that could no longer happen, that there are limits that cannot be crossed, and that we cannot dehumanize the other beyond any difference.”
Antia said the new street name symbolized “what can never happen again” and was meant to “educate new generations on the importance of fighting antisemitism and all kinds of hatred and recognizing the right of Israel to fight for its integrity and for the recovery of the hostages.” She also called for Uruguay to blacklist Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.
