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AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM Vol. 41-No. 3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2015-Shevat/Adar 5775 REMEMBERING HOLOCAUST VICTIMS On January 28, 2015, the United Nations held an event marking the tenth Visitors Lobby on January 28, 2015. United Nations Secretary-General anniversary of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Ban Ki-moon and the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, delivered Victims of the Holocaust, as well as the 70th Anniversary of the liberation remarks at the opening ceremony as well as statements by Ron Prosor, of Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the UN General Assembly. Avner Shalev, chair- permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations, and Leonard man of Yad Vashem, delivered the keynote address "Liberty, Life and the Wilf, chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem. Created with the Legacy of the Survivors," via video. Among those who offered remarks generous support of Cindy and Gerald Barad, the exhibition uses texts, were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israel's President Reuven Rivlin, images and video clips to recount a comprehensive history of the Holocaust survivor Yona Laks, and other dignitaries. Grammy award–win- Holocaust from 1933 to 1945. The event was held in cooperation with the ning violinist Miri Ben-Ari also performed. A new Yad Vashem traveling American Society for Yad Vashem and the Permanent Mission of Israel exhibition, "Shoah — How Was It Humanly Possible?" opened in the UN to the United Nations. he international community has gathered to establish the United T not yet found the antidote to the Nations, Mr. Ban continued. A deter- poison that led to genocide 70 years mination to uphold human dignity was ago, United Nations Secretary- written into the Organization’s found- General Ban Ki-moon said, marking ing Charter 70 years ago — and has the International Day of defined the UN’s work ever since. But Commemoration in Memory of the there is still a long way to go. The Victims of the Holocaust by calling struggle for justice and tolerance strongly for the world to work together faces widespread challenges. to stamp out all forms of bigotry, “Anti-Semitism remains a violent hatred and extremism. reality; Jews continue to be killed “As we remember what was lost in solely because they are Jews. the past, and as we recognize the Extremism and dehumanization are perils of the present, we know what present across the world, exploited we must do — and we know we must through social media and abetted by do it together,” said Mr. Ban in open- sensationalist press coverage. The ing remarks to the UN General targets are as diverse as humankind Assembly’s annual commemoration itself,” the Secretary-General said. of the Day. In Europe and elsewhere, Muslims Joining the Secretary-General at the are under attack, the victims of bigotry event were, among other speakers, at the hands of political opportunists Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel, and ultra-nationalists. Vulnerable and Denis Antoine, Vice-President of populations everywhere bury their the General Assembly, as well as dead and live in fear of further vio- Holocaust survivors and World War II lence. veterans. Maher Nasser, the acting “I take heart from counter-demon- UN Under-Secretary-General for strations, rallies and interfaith dia- Public Information, presided over the logue. We must all remain on our event. The president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, delivers his speech at the UN. guard. We must uphold human rights, The International Day of coincides with two milestone events: the infamous selections were made; democratic freedoms and our respon- Commemoration in Memory of the the 70th anniversary of the Second the barracks that held Jews, Roma, sibility to protect people at risk. And Victims of the Holocaust is marked World War’s end and the founding of Sinti, non-Jewish Poles, Soviet pris- we must respond to terrorism and every year on 27 January, the date on the UN. oners of war, dissidents, disabled per- provocation in ways that resolve — which Auschwitz-Birkenau was liber- Recalling his visit to the Auschwitz- sons and homosexuals; and finally instead of multiply — the problem,” he ated in 1945. This year’s observance, Birkenau camp in November 2013, the ovens where human beings were underscored. on the theme “Liberty, Life and the Mr. Ban said: “I saw the full machinery turned to ashes. n his address, Reuven Rivlin, Legacy of the Holocaust Survivors,” of murder: the railway platform where was especially moved by the Ipresident of Israel, recalled the “Idisplays of photographs and “brutal,” “perverted” extermination of films of European Jewish life before Jews during the Holocaust “in the IN THIS ISSUE tyranny took hold — family meals, most horrifying crime ever committed in the history of the human race.” The Remembering Holocaust victims......................................................... 2-3, 14 weddings and other rituals, perform- United Nations rose on the ruins of Saving children: Diary of a Buchenwald survivor and rescuer...................4 ances by the singers and actors who the Second World War, he said, The Swedes who told the world about the Holocaust..................................5 enlivened the cities in which they stressing that the International Day Diaries reveal Jewish suffering during Holocaust in Hungary.....................6 lived. We can still feel the pain of all was not just a gesture because the Hitler’s henchmen in Arabia...........................................................................7 that was lost and destroyed in a fren- pledge “Never again” was “the very Photohighlights from the Holocaust Remembrance event at UN............8-9 zy of cruelty,” the Secretary-General essence of the UN,” and the principle “Do not lose hope”........................................................................................10 added. and primary reason for its existence. The Jew who got a job offer from the Nazis.................................................11 The images of emaciated camp sur- However, since the UN was found- Nazi diary depicts brutal tactics employed against Lodz Jews......................13 vivors and piles of dead bodies were (Continued on page 2) Films shine new light on darkness of Holocaust........................................16 prominent in the minds of those who Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE January/February 2015 - Shevat/Adar 5775 REMEMBERING HOLOCAUST VICTIMS (Continued from page 1) entered Hamburg, the children were we did not turn into wild animals, hun- that is not true. ed, more nations and communities brought to a school building where gering only for revenge. This is a tes- “The Nazis sought to totally destroy had been slaughtered. “We must ask they were injected with morphine, and tament to the principles we possess the Jewish people and to impose a ourselves honestly: is our struggle — then hung to death on hooks set in as a people imbued with enduring ruthless totalitarian regime. This was the struggle of the General Assembly the wall. faith in both man and Providence. We conceived by highly educated indi- against genocide — effective “Nazi Germany and its collaborators chose life. viduals and implemented by a tech- enough?” he said. “Are we shedding had murdered one-third of the Jewish “During the first decades following nologically advanced German socie- too many tears and taking too little people. The extermination of six mil- the Holocaust, many of its survivors ty. action?” lion Jews in Europe was motivated expressed concern that it would fade “The deadly mentality that the Mr. Rivlin noted that the Convention and driven by a murderous, racist from the world's consciousness. They Nazis expressed and executed is not on Genocide was now 64 years old anti-Semitic ideology — that viewed feared that it would remain recorded likely to return in its exact historical but remained a merely “symbolic doc- all Jews, everywhere in the world, as only in history books. But it didn't. form of the 1930s and -40s. But as ument” that had not realized its objec- a lethal danger to the German nation “My mentor, Professor Yisrael Auschwitz survivor, author Primo tives. The international community and to Germany's new world order. Gutman, himself a Holocaust sur- Levi, cautioned: It happened. had a duty to lay down the red lines “So every last Jew, everywhere, had vivor, said: ‘The Shoah refuses to Therefore, it can happen again. defining genocide and to make clear to be destroyed, at any cost. become history.’ owadays, destructive evil, that crossing those lines must mean “Recalling the horrible scope and “In the decades since spring 1945, “Nincluding vicious anti- intervention. Humanitarian and moral nature of that genocide is the core of large portions of humanity have come Semitism, reappears in different con- considerations had to take prece- Holocaust remembrance, but remem- gradually to perceive the Holocaust texts and ideologies. These ideologies dence over economic, political or brance extends deeper and further. as a pivotal landmark event for mod- deny human rights and dignity in other other interests in the fight against hen the War ended, much ern civilization. dangerous ways and circumstances. genocide. “W of the world rejoiced in the “Even regions and cultures not orig- “Confronted by this reality, I ask: “Nations cannot be saved and How can we ensure that moral must not be saved as an after- values will still be as essential thought or from considerations to our lives as technology of cost-benefit,” Mr. Rivlin said. advances? “Unless the moral fire burns “With this question, I have within us, the lessons of the come to this General Holocaust will never be learned.” Assembly, a venue usually The General Assembly must associated with statesmen and act as a determined and unified politicians. international community or else “I am an educator and a risk leaving the “Never again” teacher of other educators. It is oath hollow and defiled. as a Holocaust educator, that I “We must remain silent no accepted the UN's gracious longer.