ID Transcript
mare3903_01 "Vol. 39-No. 3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2013-Shevat/Adar 5773 HOLOCAUST VICTIMS REMEMBERED AT THE UN EVENT Holocaust survivors, their families, and delegates of their cause flooded the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations on January 25, when the international body commemorated the victims of Nazism with a day of remembrance on the 68th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The ceremony opened with a moment of silence, followed by a taped message from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who promised that the UN, founded out of the principles of humanity highlighted by the Holocaust, would ""never again"" let such an atrocity occur. through exhibits, film, educational activities, and today's ceremony. ""Acts of genocide illustrate the depths of evil to which individuals and whole societies can descend, but the examples of the brave men and women we celebrate today also demonstrate the capacity of humankind for good, even during the darkest of days,"" Mr. Ban said. He noted that this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Righteous Among the Nations Program at the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, which is devoted to identifying and rewarding such heroes. Following the airing of Mr. Ban's Ceremony at General Assembly. Those who risked their lives to save Jews and others from mass extermination in the Second World War are inspiration for the courage to fight for a better world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other United Nations officials said. ""Let us be inspired by those who had the courage to care - the ordinary people who took extraordinary steps to defend human dignity,"" Mr. Ban said in a video message at a General Assembly ceremony to mark the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. This year's observance of the International Day is built around the theme ""Rescue during the Holocaust: The Courage to Care,"" profiling individual rescuers — who defied not only the Nazis, but often also multiple governments — remarks, profiles of rescuers punctuated the proceedings, ranging from Irene Sendler, a Polish woman who smuggled children out of the Warsaw ghetto, to the Veseli family, Albanian Muslims that hid a Jewish family on their farm, to an unknown platform guard that saved a Dutch Romani boy. it I n my 24-year work as head of the I Righteous Department, at Yad Vashem, I was instrumental in identifying and honoring thousands of other non- Jewish rescuers of Jews from the Nazis; men and women from various countries and walks of life, who in saving Jews stood the risk of losing their own life — for the Nazis threatened retribution by warning that rescuers of Jews, if caught, would meet the same fate as the Jews they tried IN THIS ISSUE International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2013 1,2 An unfinished journey from the Holocaust to Israel 5 How 150 Czech Jewish teens escaped the Holocaust 6 ""Tehran Children"" survivors win suit against state 7 New York museums have not returned Nazi-seized art 8 Could the BBC have done more to help Hungarian Jews? 9 Yad Vashem archives rediscover heroic rescue.. 10 Rare Shoah images from Nazi albums 11 Hitler ordered reprieve for Jewish man 12 New insight into the Warsaw ghetto uprising 14 Photographer haunted by images of Jewish prisoners. 15 to save. These rescuers reasserted their commitment to an ethical-bound humanity that was being challenged by one of the brutest and immoral forces that has stained the annals of civilized life,"" said Mr. Mordecai Paldiel, the former head of the Righteous Department at Yad Vashem and the keynote speaker at the event. ""To date, at this 50-year celebration of the Righteous program, some 25,000 names of rescuers adorn the Yad Vashem memorial, and a 10-volume encyclopedia published by Yad Vashem describes their humanitarian and life-risking actions that caused them to be remembered and to serve as role models for generations to come. The Commission's work is ongoing, with many names added annually to this unique roster of knights of the spirit. They represent a various collection of men and women from different walks of life and education; blue-and white-collar workers; farmers and city dwellers; clerics and lay people, as well as diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden and Aristides de Sousa Mendes of Portugal: the former, who handed out Protective Letters, and the latter, transit visas, thus making possible the rescue of thousands of Jews.... What they all share was a commitment to help others in need, when challenged to do so, in spite of the risks to themselves in the event of discovery by the Nazi authorities and their collaborating agencies,"" continued Mr. Paldiel. ""Those lucky enough to be rescued by sometimes total strangers — it helped them to regain and reaffirm their own commitment to a universe guided by moral principles. As stated by Primo Levi, that through his help in Auschwitz by Lorenzo Perrone, an Italian civilian construction worker, in Levi's words: 'I managed not to forget that I myself was a man' — this, in spite of Auschwitz. ""Or consider the answer given by the Dutch rescuer Johtje Vos to her mother, who one day came visiting her daughter, and was stunned to find there a Jewish child. The mother said: 'You shouldn't do it, even though I agree with what you're doing, because your first responsibility is to your children.' To this, Johtje Vos responded: That's exactly why I'm doing it!' She added in her testimony, 'I thought we were doing the right thing, giving our children the right model to follow.' ""And thus, they all acted according to the dictum of that ancient Jewish sage, Hillel, who stated: 'If I am only for myself, then what is my merit?' A later Talmudic passage underlines this point in even stronger ethical terms: 'Whosoever saves one life is as though he had saved an entire world.' ""That is a lesson worth repeating, and a plea and summons to anyone in this audience who has not yet accounted for his or her rescue due to the selfless help of others, to do so while there is still time."" Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor also spoke to the hall, reminding those in attendance that, from the very same venue in which he stood, leaders of nation-states have denied a moment in history that included the documented, systematic killing of more than 6 million Jews. ""We live in a world filled with prejudice and violence. A world in which anti- Keynote speaker Mordecai Paldiel and Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor. Semitism is sponsored, taught, and spread by governments, clerics, and schoolteachers,"" Prosor said. ""Every year, from this very podium, the Iranian president denies the Holocaust while threatening to carry out another one."" At a breakfast before the ceremony held to mark the day, B'nai B'rith International president Allan J. Jacobs said that denials would continue as more time passes and more witnesses pass on. ""We know that's going to happen,"" Jacobs said. ""There is certainly a dichotomy that exists. And we'll continue to fight that in every venue we can, including at the UN."" Throughout the somber event, which included a cantor's prayer and a melancholy performance by a chamber ensemble, the loudest moment came in the form of applause at the end of Prosor's speech. ""From the hills of Jerusalem, to the camps of Treblinka, to the halls of the United Nations, we say — as we have said for a hundred generations before us, and our children will say long after us — Am Yisrael Chai. The people of Israel will live,"" he said. One man in attendance, Bernhard Storch, 90, lost his entire family in Nazi concentration camps as he fought in the Polish army, through the reoccupation of Warsaw in 1945. He comes every year to honor them, he says, wearing the medals he won fighting for their freedom. ""As President Obama has said, 'We must tell our children — but more than that, we must teach them. Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture,'"" US Ambassador Susan Rice stated in a media release. ""We cannot bring back the victims of the Shoah. But we can rededicate ourselves to expanding the reach of human decency, human dignity, and human rights — today and all days."" "