In times of war in Europe, Olaf Scholz has taken a day to do what a German head of government usually does shortly after taking office – pay a visit to Israel.

"It was a personal concern of mine to visit Israel as early as possible," said the Chancellor in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Originally he wanted to spend three days in the region, visiting Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

That was the plan before the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Until shortly before departure on Tuesday evening, it was uncertain whether the trip would take place at all.

But Scholz insisted on taking at least one day – despite the global crisis.

Christian Meier

Political correspondent for the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

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Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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In the morning the Chancellor visited the Yad Vashem Memorial.

There he met Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

After a joint tour of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Scholz attended a commemoration ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance for the six million Jews murdered by the National Socialists.

The names of 22 places where the Jews were exterminated are engraved on the floor of the hall.

These include Babyn Yar in the Ukraine, where around 33,000 Jewish men, women and children were massacred within 48 hours at the end of September 1941.

On Tuesday, the Babyn Yar Memorial near Kyiv was damaged when Russian forces shelled a nearby television tower.

At Yad Vashem, Scholz laid a wreath of yellow and red flowers on the stone slab in the hall under which the ashes of victims of the death camps are buried.

After the ceremony, the Chancellor signed the memorial's guest book.

"The Shoah's crime against humanity made the world stare into the abyss.

The mass murder of the Jews started in Germany.

It was planned and executed by Germans,” wrote Scholz.

From this arises every German government's ongoing responsibility for the security of the State of Israel and the protection of Jewish life.

The millionfold suffering and the victims will never be forgotten.

Scholz makes the connection from the Shoah to Ukraine

Of course, this visit was also marked by the war.

At the press conference with Bennett, Scholz made the connection from the Shoah to the current situation.

The responsibility that arises from the mass murder of European Jews includes not only working for Israel's security but also standing up for a European peace order that rules out war.

Scholz called the news about the war in Ukraine "bad".

Every day costs lives among the civilian population and among the soldiers on both sides - this must be ended as soon as possible.

Scholz knows that the war in Ukraine will only get worse, that more images of horror will reach the world.

He therefore also made it clear where the deployment of Germany and the western alliance ends: "We will not intervene militarily.

This applies to NATO.

That would be wrong in this situation.” That was clearly decided with the allies.

However, the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States are already having a massive impact.

This shows that "the right action between determination and caution" was chosen.