Martyrdom & Resistance, March/April 2000

ID Transcript mare2604_01 "rAPR 2 4 2000 JOS MARTYRDOM AND RESISTANCE PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM, INC. Vol. 26 - No. 4 ISSN 0892-1571 March-April 2000 - Adar-Nisan 5760 Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah 5760: Millennium Opens on Vigorous Notes of Remembrance BY ELI ZBOROWSKI CHAIRMAN, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM Is there anyone who does not realize that there is an extraordinary air about Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah 5760-2000? And the reason is not that this will mark the first observances of this millennium. A Historic Visit: Pope Speaks at Yad Vashem An odyssey of remembrance that began in 1979 with a visit to Auschwitz ended on March 23 when Pope John Paul II visited Yad Vashem. The New York Times recorded the historical importance of this visit, a high point of the first official papal journey to Israel: ""...John Paul II paid eloquent homage to the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide. He noted his own memories of the Nazi occupation of his native Poland and of Jewish childhood friends and neighbors who perished in the concentration camps. ""John Paul II has done more than any modern Pope to end the estrangement between Catholics and Jews. He was the first Pope to pray in a synagogue, the first to acknowledge the failure of individual Catholics to deter the Holocaust and the first to call anti-Semitism a sin ""against God and man."" The 79-year-old frail Pope wept openly. In his remarks the Pope said, ""In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. (Continued on page 8) The visit to Yad Vashem of Pope John Paul II on March 23 elevated the cause of remembrance as no other act could have. I was privileged to be one of the survivors at the Israel Remembrance Authority who greeted the Pope and heard his words, among them: ""...there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah.... ""I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who, stripped of everything, especially of their human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust.... ""Here at Yad Vashem the memory lives on and burns ourselves into our souls. It makes us cry out."" Yes, we know that many are saying that the Pope should have said more to condemn the actions of the Catholic Church, should have criticized Pope Pius XII, should have promised to unlock the archives of the Vatican. We do not ignore these calls, but we leave these issues for the resolution of history. YAD VASHEM VISIT TURNING POINT Is there any doubt that the Pope's very gesture of coming to Yad Vashem marks a turning point for Jews and Christians? Pope John Paul II will be duly inscribed in the history of the human race and the Jewish people. Others, without deep thought, will take little satisfaction because of current developments: a trial in Great Britain in which the authenticity of the Holocaust was in contention; the rise of neo-Nazism in Austria; acts of anti-Semitism across the world, and the like. However, no one claims that Holocaust remembrance will wipe out anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Indeed, we read at the Seder, that in every generation people rise up to destroy the Jewish people. But (Continued on page 6) Yad Vashem greets his Holiness Pope John Paul II Yad Vashem Opens New Archives and Library Yad Vashem unveiled its new archives and library; it represents the world's largest archive of materials documenting the Holocaust. According to Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, the building contains more than 55 million documents, records of war crimes, trials, diaries, and memoirs. The Library boasts some 80,000 titles; the Film and Photo Archives stores 130,000 photographs, thousands of videocassettes and films on reels. ""Our challenge for the new millennium is not only to acquire published material but also to ensure that quality material is published about the Holocaust,"" said Robert Rozett, director of the Library. DIGNITARIES AT THE CEREMONIES In addition to Avner Shalev and Szewach Weiss, chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, these dignitaries were at the dedication ceremonies: Israeli President Ezer Weizman; Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau; Finance Minister Avraham Beiga Shohat; Dr. Israel Miller, president, Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. One-third of the funding for the $66 million project came from the Claims Conference, which used monies received as reparations for unclaimed Jewish properties in Germany. International donors were Danek Gertner (Austria), the Baan Brothers (Holland), Fred Kort (U.S.), Zisa Aizenman-Schwartz and family (Panama), Eugenia Sperber Halbreich (Brazil), and Paul Lipschutz (Sweden). "