Speech given by Foreign Minister Ann Linde on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau 27 Januari 2020

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Today we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army. Today we pay tribute to and we honor the six millions Jews, who lost their lives in . We should also take time to reflect on human nature, and its capacity to do evil.

With a vanishing group of survivors, it is even more important to have a Holocaust Day to remember, reflect and react, also on contemporary forms of , that might pave way to new injustices, abuses and even mass atrocities.

Earlier this week Prime Minister Stefan Löfven visited to participate in the World Holocaust Forum to honor the victims of the Holocaust at in .

Prime Minister Löfven has also decided to host an International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance, Holocaust Education and combating antisemitism on social media in October this year in Malmö.

The Holocaust represents a turning point in our history.

It changed the course of the world’s history. The Holocaust brought human rights: “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” to the forefront of the international agenda. And accountability for the mass atrocities committed during Second World War was secured in the Nurnberg trials and Tokyo War Crimes trials.

These trials were a series of military tribunals held after the war by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war. The trials were remarkable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes. These tribunals rulings also marked a turning point in international law.

Three years later, in 1948, world leaders adopted a cornerstone in international law: the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The same year, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted: another cornerstone.

These human rights instruments and subsequent ones set out the fundamental universal values which should govern our societies from then on - and we promised NEVER AGAIN.

Unfortunately, we have not managed to live up to this promise. The fact that a genocide could take place in Rwanda is just one example of breaking this solemn promise. I note that the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar is currently being tried by the International Court of Justice under the Genocide convention.

Why don’t we learn from history? Facts are always subject to interpretation, so who should decide what is written down as history? Who writes the history? Very often it has been the winning parties, who have decided how events and mass atrocities committed during a war should be presented in media, in trials or in the schoolbooks.

The Dayton agreement is often cited as one of the most successful conflict resolution agreement so far. When it was signed, the warring parties agreed to have a moratorium on the history writing about the war for at least five years. I find that interesting.

History is a constant subject for research and debate. The events during the Second World War and the Holocaust are not been exempted.

With a shrinking number of surviving veterans and Holocaust survivors, the politicization of the war’s legacy is gathering momentum, also across .

History can become politized. Different interpretation of historical facts can be to one’s advantage or disadvantage. So, who should decide what is written down as history? Are there limits to how far one can rewrite history? Should there be red lines? Today’s guest lecture will address this pressing question.

It is my great pleasure to welcome Professor Grabowski from University of Ottawa to Sweden and the Foreign Ministry.

Let me also thank the Living History Agency for its collaboration and for co-hosting this event with us.