Standing near the rail tracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau on Nov. 11, 2026, a delegation of United Nations ambassadors confronted the stark reality of the Holocaust as part of a diplomatic tour.
A US ambassador told a gathering of these UN envoys on Friday that representing Israel is “one of the hardest jobs I can imagine for a diplomat,” i24NEWS reported. The remarks came during a Shabbat reception opening the Israeli leg of an international trip that brought diplomats from 20 countries first to Poland and then across Israel.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, led the delegation of about 40 diplomats through Krakow’s historic Jewish Quarter and the former Nazi German death camp. Danon thanked Huckabee during the Shabbat dinner, noting that welcoming the day together symbolized the strength of the alliance between Israel and the United States, according to i24NEWS.
The diplomatic itinerary includes scheduled tours of areas along Israel’s northern and southern borders, security briefings, and high-level meetings with senior Israeli officials to view sites attacked on Oct. 7. The trip follows a solemn opening chapter in Poland designed to ground the envoys in the historical roots of modern antisemitism.
“It’s overwhelming to be here to really see what happened to humanity, to be able to understand what people think about this, what the Jews think about this, what the people of Israel think about this,” Andrés Montalvo Sosa, Ecuadorian ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS exclusively. Calling himself a new witness, the Ecuadorian envoy added, “There is no other way to understand.”
Other diplomats in the delegation echoed the profound impact of walking the grounds of the former extermination camp. Ricklef Beutin, German ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS after the visit that “continuous education about the Holocaust and what happened specifically here in Auschwitz-Birkenau with the industrial annihilation machine is important and continues to be as important as it was.”
Beutin also warned that “antisemitism is not only still around, but it’s on the rise in many places” worldwide since Oct. 7. Hynek Kmoníček, Czech ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS that visiting the site helps observers grasp “a political and historical process which has its steps, which are needed to push normal people to do the crimes they could have never imagined.”
During the Friday Shabbat reception in Israel, Huckabee reflected on his own relationship with the country, stating, “Israel isn’t my homeland, but it has become my home,” i24NEWS reported. He told the visiting envoys they could spend 200 days in the nation and still leave with more to discover.
Adding a touch of levity to the evening, Huckabee joked that he begins each morning by checking President Donald Trump’s social media accounts to verify whether he has been dismissed overnight. Finding himself still employed, he gets dressed and reports to the embassy, telling the room, “So far, so good,” according to i24NEWS.
The delegation’s movement from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Israel highlights the trip led by Danny Danon.
