Martyrdom & Resistance, January/February 2009

MARTYRDOM & Vol. 35-N0.3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2009-Shevat/Adar- 1 5769 UN MARKS THE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY Over six decades after 6 million Jews, nearly a third of the total, and countless other minorities were butchered in the Nazi German Holocaust, it is more vital than ever to learn from the tragedy to prevent further atrocities, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned in his speech on January 27. “We must continue to examine why the world failed to prevent the Holocaust and other atrocities since. That way, we will be better armed to defeat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance,” he said in a message marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. “We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history’s darkest chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in the face of bigotry and hatred,” he added in the message, read at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York by Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro. Mr. Ban noted that new initiatives in Holo¬ caust remembrance and education have given an authentic basis for hope, which is the theme of this year’s observance, the fourth since the General Assembly instituted the annual commemoration. “But we can and must do more if we are to make that hope a reality,” he stressed. “We must uphold the standards and laws that the United Nations has put in place to protect people and fight impunity for geno¬ cide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Our world continues to be plagued by ruthless vio¬ lence, utter disregard for human rights, and the target¬ ing of people solely for who they are.” As well as the ceremony, chaired by Under-Secretary- General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka, the UN marked the occasion with panel discus¬ sions and other events, including an initiative by the UN Department of Public Information called the “Foot¬ prints of Hope,” which brings the global network of the UN Information Centers together with local schools to further youngsters’ understanding of the Holocaust and their respect for human rights through documentary and film resources. A new exhibit has also opened in the Visitors’ Lobby about the Nazi regime called “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race.” General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto echoed Mr. Ban’s call to the world to learn the lesson of the Holo¬ caust. “We need to move beyond our statements of grief and memory, however powerfully felt, and work to develop new ways of thinking about the Holocaust, about genocide, about the apparently bot¬ tomless capacity for peoples’ cruelty to each other,” he said in a message. “That capacity is shared by all of us. At their core, all genocides, all holocausts, start with the alienation, demonization and the marginalization of the “Other” - those citizens of another religion, another race, ethnicity, another set of political ideas, or another sexual orientation than our own,” he added, calling for a struggle against Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Yad Vashem Council Chairman, addresses Holocaust Memorial Ceremony. IN THIS ISSUE UN marks the Holocaust Remembrance Day . 1 Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorated around the globe . 3 Rethinking Poles and Jews . 4 The unholy legacy of Pius XII . 5 The “no-parent” Kindertransport . „6 As Nazis age, leads still alive . 7 Rabbi Lau visits office of The American Society for Yad Vashem . 8-9 New Yad Vashem books teach Holocaust to haredim . 10 Three brothers defied terror . 11 A helping hand for Nazi victims . 12 The Holocaust, viewed not from then but from the here and now . 16 intolerance and for relationships that replace “us and them” with “we and ours.” Also about unlearned lessons of the Holocaust was the speech of Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council. Here are some excerpts from his very moving speech delivered at the UN headquarters in New York. «/4n April 11, 1995 50 years to the V-yday of liberation of the concentra¬ tion camp of Buchenwald I was invited to Buchenwald. This was my second visit. The first time I arrived there, together with my older brother Naftalie, in January of 1945. I was seven-and-a-half-years old. We’ve got two prisoner numbers, one after another, and at that moment, I lost my identity. I was nobody. I was a number. On my second visit in 1 995 I was a citizen of the independent state, the state of Israel, and I was a Chief Rabbi of the state of Israel. Not nobody, but somebody, and not a number any more. You will agree that many things have changed during these 50 years. May be you will say it is time to open a new chap¬ ter. Let’s forget. Let’s forgive. I came to tell you: We cannot forget. It is impossible to forget and we are not authorized to for¬ Holocaust, not because of the numbers, the gas chambers but because of the sys¬ tematic quest to liquidate a nation. First Hitler declared it in his work “Mein Kampf.” Years later came Nuremberg Laws that declared that Jews have no rights to pos¬ sessions, to freedom, not to life. Years later came the Kristallnacht, when 1500 synagogues were burned and 30,000 Jews sent to the concentration camps. What was the reaction of the free world? What did they see? What did they say? Now we know - almost nothing. Three years later was Baby Yar. Thirty three thousand, seven hundred seventy- one victims: children, babies, women. What was the reaction? Almost none. Three months later the Wannsee Confer¬ ence took place near Berlin: How to liqui¬ date the Jewish people. They called it the “ Final Solution." The final solution to solve the world’s problems would be to get rid of the Jews, because we are the internation¬ al poisoner. Let me tell you several things about anti-Semitism. I believe that UN by declaring January 27 the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is looking not to Holocaust Memorial Ceremony attendees at the UN observe Moment of Silence. give. Even if I am a man of forgiveness and kindness, I have no right to forgive on behalf of my father, who was murdered in Treblinka at the age of fifty, of my 13-year old brother Schmulik. I have no mandate from my mother, who died from torture, and starvation, and diseases in concen¬ tration camp of Ravensbruk, and my forty- two cousins. I cannot forgive. Sixty years later the UN was clever and kind enough to declare January 27, the day of liberation of Auschwitz by Red Army, the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Sixty years after the hor¬ ror, but better later than never. I want to share with you some of my thoughts. Nothing can be compared to just condemn anti-Semitism, but to defeat it, if it’s possible. Anti-Semitism is a spiri¬ tual thesis, which has nothing to do with logic. Why were we the target of the liqui¬ dation? Did we threaten any nation in the world? Did we have an army? What did we do? Why did you hate us? Why did you kill us? In Poland, were I was born, it was said that the society rejects us, Jews, because we are different. We wear beards, black hats, we look strange. If we were like everyone else the society would embrace us. Next to Poland, in Germany, many Jews were like everybody else. They con¬ tributed to arts, literature, politics, finances, they were doctors, lawyers, (Continued on page 2)