27 January 2007
Vienna International Centre
Over 60 years have passed for us to get the chance, in these settings, to honour the memory of the Jews, Sinti, Roma and many others that perished as martyrs in the Shoa and for that, I want to thank the United Nations. The 27 th of January represents the 62 nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and tomorrow we will mark the day that reintroduced the concept of hope for the future.
History has seen many crimes and many victims. Atrocities committed. Murders, mass murders, crimes against humanity occurring throughout history. However, none of these compare to the planned extermination of an entire people by the Nazis and their accomplices.
I listened carefully when my grandparents spoke about the Holocaust. Most of it was simply unimaginable, for a human being to have done to another human being. As a grown man I am incapable of comprehending how inhumanities as cruel as these could have occurred. As I was born after the Shoa, I grew up in a world free of daily raids, abuse, beatings, murders and gas chambers. It is for the memory of those who did have to live under the daily threat to their lives that it is our obligation, our responsibility never to forget. Any possible signs of reigniting racism or anti-Semitism must be fought and eliminated at their roots. We must stop history from repeating itself.
I did get the privilege of growing up with grand parents, but I wonder how many of my Jewish friends did not. How many of them never got to sit on their grandmother's lap? How many of them grew up without an aunt or uncle? How many generations will suffer under the psychological consequences?
It is due to this history that we have become overly sensitive to any possible expression of racism or anti-Semitism. Even today, over sixty years and multiple generations later, we are unable to fully establish ourselves as we are afraid of becoming complacent and live under the constant fear of anti-Semitism reigniting. How long will it take for the next generations to be able and fully abandon this fear? Will it ever be possible?
What began over a thousand years ago has prevailed until today. Throughout history, Jews have been driven out of countries all over the world. Persecution during the Crusades or the Inquisition are only a few examples of the terrible past the Jews have suffered through and belong to the list of never to be forgotten atrocities in man kinds history. The holocaust, with its inconceivable number of 6 million Jewish victims is certainly the pinnacle of the history of anti-Semitism. With all this in mind I constantly ask myself how the world will fare under the increasing radicalisation of religion and what the future will bring for the Jewish people. Speeches heard from Teheran and lately Caracas, two distinctly different places on this planet with disturbingly similar ideologies, have made me fear for the future.
This event and this day should not merely make us remember the past but have to act as a warning for us and the next generation. Do not let the Holocaust repeat itself! Do not forget! Anybody who claims the Shoa did not occur or who minimize what happened under the Nazi regime should be outcasts by all standards. Denial is the first step to advocating repetition and we cannot let that occur and we will not let that occur! Through the denial of the Shoa, groups and countries such as Iran want to deny Israel the right to exist as they see one as a mere consequence of the other. The United Nations has the obligation to prevent such atrocities from reoccurring and as such has to stop these dangerous developments in their infancy.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let us be watchful and ensure that we will never allow the Holocaust from repeating itself. Let us open our hearts and let us live together as human beings in peace and with the outmost respect for one another.
Thank you for your attention
