Martyrdom and Resistance, January/February 2014

ID Transcript mare4003_01 "AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM Vol. 40-NO.3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2014-Shevat/Adar 5774 INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY COMMEMORATED AROUND THE WORLD The United Nations paid tribute to the six million Jews and countless others massacred in the Nazi Holocaust with a solemn ceremony in the General Assembly Hall, a rebuke to Holocaust deniers, and a warning from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the perils of anti-Semitism and hatred of any kind. ""The United Nations was founded to prevent any such horror from happening again. Yet tragedies from Cambodia to Rwanda to Srebrenica show that the poison of genocide still flows,"" he said in a message marking the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, held every year on 27 January, the date on which Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the worst German Nazi concentration and extermination camps, was liberated in 1945. Mr. Ban recalled his own visit to the camp in November as he walked through the ""infamous"" gate bearing the metal slogan ""Arbeit macht fret' (work makes [you] free) and stood near the crematoria that burned the corpses of so many victims. ""I will never forget my visit,"" he said. ""I saw the horrific remnants of the machinery of genocide, as well as moving images of European Jewish life in the 1930s — weddings, family meals, rituals, other scenes of simple daily life — all extinguished through systematic murder unique in human history. ""I saw the barracks where Jews, Roma, Sinti, homosexuals, dissidents, prisoners of war and persons with disabilities spent their final days in the most brutal conditions,"" he added, calling for unflagging vigilance against bigotry, extremist ideologies, communal tensions and discrimination against minorities. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, recalling her own visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, has a ""simple message"" for all those who deny that the Holocaust happened, or who engage in anti-Semitism and other forms of religious, racial or ethnic intolerance or discrimination. ""Visit this historic and terrible place,"" at large failed so dismally to prevent it. The Holocaust stands as a searing reminder of the perils of discrimination and intolerance, and of just how powerful and deadly the incitement to racial hatred can be,"" she added, stressing the imperative of reacting quickly and firmly to discrimination and violence against individuals and entire communities, wherever they occur. Ms. Pillay noted that despite the rev- Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor with director Steven Spielberg at the United Nations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Monday, January 27, 2014. she said in a message marking the Day. ""It is a truly humbling and harrowing experience to feel the chill of evil and immense tragedy that permeates its walls and grounds. It is important to feel — not just to know in an abstract way — where such behavior can lead."" ur^ach year, on 27 January, we CZtake time to remember the victims of the Holocaust and to reflect on how it came about, and how the world IN THIS ISSUE International Holocaust Remembrance Day 1,14-15 Deal with the devil 2 Return to Auschwitz 3 Gone to PitchipoY 4 Survivors recall Kindertransport escape 5 The savior of Sobibor. 6 Observing Yom Kippur in the shadow of death 6 The uses of Nazi ""Degenerate art"" 8 ""Traces of Life"" 10 16th Annual Conference on Holocaust Education 16 elation of the full horror of the Holocaust, the flames of hatred and persecution have risen again to consume other countries, people and societies — from the killing fields of Cambodia to the forests of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the hills of Rwanda. ""Even today, in many places around the world, people are persecuted or discriminated against because of their race, religion, origin, sexual orientation or political opinions, and in countries such as Syria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, people are still being maimed and slaughtered because of the group to which they belong,"" she warned. ""We need to stop turning a blind eye to the warning signs of serious human rights violations whenever and wherever they appear. That much, at least, we can do to honor all those millions murdered en masse by their fellow human beings, who attempted to justify war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide with hate- inspired political philosophies and propaganda."" Opening the commemorative ceremony, General Assembly President John Ashe stressed that the Day underscored the international community's determination that ""such unfathomable horror and unspeakable cruelty"" would have no place in this world. ""Today, we are gathered here, to bear witness for all those who were brutalized, who suffered and who died, and we are also here to bear witness so that we the living never allow such a terrible tragedy to occur in our shared human history,"" he said. ""We will not forget them, we have not forgotten them, and they have not left us in vain. The sheer ferocity and pervasive cruelty of the Holocaust brought to fore a deep and powerful moral imperative that crimes of such enormity must be forever eliminated from this planet. ""This moral imperative calls on the international community to ensure that this horrendous crime against humanity, including various subsequent derivatives thereof, must never be repeated in any way, shape or form."" Giving the keynote speech at the ceremony, film director, writer and producer Steven Spielberg stressed that the world cannot emerge from the Holocaust until there are no more genocides, until ""the unthinkable becomes impossible..."" ""Tragically we are all aware that the Holocaust is with us today in ongoing attempts at genocides all around our planet,"" he added, highlighting the UN's role in bringing home the message. ""The United Nations is one of the most important institutions that humanity has created, not only because of that shared hope that it would accomplish what's set out in its Charter, but because the United Nations provides a place for representatives of all the peoples of the world to listen to witnesses telling their experiences, and after listening, policy is made. This is a place that testimony forms the basis of action."" (Continued on page 14) "