ANNUAL REPORT 2011 STANDING TOGETHER AGAINST INTOLERANCE BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH EDUCATION ANNUAL REPORT 2011
STANDING TOGETHER AGAINST INTOLERANCE BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH EDUCATION TABLE OF CONTENTS
9 2011 in Review
10 A “historic” visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau
12 “In the Language of Thy Neighbor”: books, Internet, television, cinema
20 Knowing Your Neighbor’s History and Religion
23 International Outreach
26 Monitoring and Action
28 Reflections on Aladdin’s Strategies
31 Looking ahead: upcoming projects
34 Patrons and international support 35 Charter of the Aladdin Project 36 Organization 38 Financial statement 40 Acknowledgements 42 Appendices
4 Letter from the President
For three years already, women, men, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, right-wing, left-wing, from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, personalities and ordinary citizens, we have waged together in the Aladdin Project a battle for knowing and respecting the Other. We have worked to combat ignorance and hatred, denial and deceit, racism and anti-Semitism. Hatred of the Jew, hatred of the Muslim, hatred of the foreigner is intolerable: we say this in French, Arabic, English, Turkish and Persian.
But our globalised and constantly changing society pressures us to act and react quickly, expecting to see immediately the results of our actions so that they can be widely communicated. Resisting this pace, resisting the desire to achieve everything at once and resisting the media’s tyranny means swimming against the flow: this is what we have decided to do. We are in this for the long haul, aware that knowledge needs to be learnt and prejudice vanquished; democracy has to be institutions, “friends of Aladdin” that I hope will constructed and respect for the Other acquired; increase even more so that we can achieve all the enlightenment is a gradual process. Learning projects that have been submitted to us or that we about the past and understanding current affairs wish to carry out. can be confusing, especially in countries whose cultures and histories are so remote from ours; Having said this, at the time this report is being achieving the change we are aiming at takes time, published, in the summer of 2012, I would like to notwithstanding the displeasure of Facebook and add that what is happening in France and in Europe Twitter fans. right now also gives us cause for concern. This year in France and in Europe, the rise of intolerance For each project we conducted in 2011, we held and anti-Semitism tinged with a depraved version forth these few basic principles without which we of Islam, as well as the violence inspired by neo- would have been led astray: the values of humanity, Nazi and Islamophobic ideologies, made us decide of justice, of respect for Mankind and peace that work also needs to be done at home, and we between peoples and nations. will contribute to it. I am therefore pleased to see that the number of The true believers have not forgotten that people who trust us and whose testimonies come respect for God is demonstrated by respect for from many different countries and continents is Mankind, the pursuit of justice and goodness. We steadily rising and I want to thank each and every rely on those accompanying our initiative “Know one of them. I also thank all those who, trusting the Religion of Thy Neighbor” to speak out and us, support us financially: public and private
5 remind everyone that they will not let their holy the name of Islam.” books be diverted from their original fraternal purpose. But the mantra of “never again” is not enough. We will therefore, in the wake of the actions Young people need to believe in the values of already taken, place our faith in education. The respect, peace and life that we acquired after Aladdin Project has chosen the motto “Bridges of centuries of wars, discrimination and reciprocal Knowledge”: a bridge between Jews and Muslims, humiliation. For these values, millions of brave and a bridge between religions, a bridge between the generous men and women fought and gave their various peoples of the Mediterranean, a bridge lives while millions of children, women and men between Palestinians and Israelis, a bridge between were being murdered. Let us say it once again, like cultures... All bridges unite the people against the I said after Mohammed Mérah murdered those fanaticism that divides them. Undoubtedly, the French soldiers and Jewish children: “The time of ropes are fragile. Nevertheless, I am convinced the Crusaders is over! The time of ‘Death to the that they will hold if more and more of us continue Jews’ is over! The era of ‘humiliated Arabs’ is over! to keep its knots tight. The time of the conquest of the ‘Dar al-Harb’ is over. Jewish children can never again be killed in • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Anne-Marie Revcolevschi
6 Introduction by the Executive Director
Staying on course In the months that followed the visit to Auschwitz, in the midst of upheaval the Aladdin Project’s activities continued to grow: ten new books on the Holocaust were published The year 2011 was a year of political upheaval in Arabic and Persian; Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, in the whole world, especially in North Africa subtitled in Turkish and Persian, was broadcast to and the Middle East. Yet, despite this different, millions of viewers in Turkey and Iran; conferences more complex and demanding environment, were organized in different countries and the Aladdin Project continued its progress, premieres for movies about the Muslim Righteous avoiding politicization and remaining faithful to its among the Nations gathered a large audience. original mission: to tell Muslims the truth about the Holocaust and to show the Jews that in the Throughout 2011, the Aladdin Project’s work Muslim world too, many are those who reject was repeatedly described as “indispensable” by Holocaust denial or trivialization of the Holocaust; personalities as diverse as Holocaust survivor to fight stereotypes and to encourage intercultural and UNESCO Special Ambassador Samuel Pisar; relations through mutual knowledge and mutual veteran U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman; respect. former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; President of the Supreme Electoral Commission The year 2011 began with a journey of of Tunisia Kamel Jendoubi; Iranian philosopher remembrance and reconciliation to Auschwitz Hamid Ongha; former French Minister of Culture with, alongside Holocaust survivors, about two Frédéric Mitterrand; Turkish author and playwright hundred political, religious and civil society leaders Tarik Gunersel and the former Minister of Foreign from across the Muslim world, Israel, Europe, the Affairs of Spain Miguel Angel Moratinos… All United States, as well as international organizations concurred that the political changes sweeping parts such as the United Nations and UNESCO. After of the Muslim world make the work of the Aladdin Chief Rabbi Israel Lau and Archbishop of Paris Project more necessary than ever, for sustainable Cardinal Vingt-Trois’ speeches, on the windswept, change can only happen through education and snow-covered and eerily silent plains of Birkenau, awareness-raising. the Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceric recited in Arabic the Muslim prayers for the dead and It is those principles that have inspired our projects uttered, in one phrase, a vehement rejection of in 2011 and that encourage us to stay focused on attempts by some in the Muslim world to deny or our goal. trivialize the Holocaust: “Not in our name!” • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Abe Radkin The year ended in the cavernous chamber of the Brussels Parliament in December, with the launch of the Belgian Friends of the Aladdin Project. Morocco’s former Minister of Education Professor Rashid Benmokhtar lamented the failure of Jews and Muslims to pass on their shared history to younger generations, adding: “There is nothing worse than ignorance, except indifference. We left our young to drift away; now is the time to reclaim them.”
7 8
2011 in Review
9 A HISTORIC VISIT TO AUSCHWITZ
More than two hundred personalities from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, America and Europe braved sub-zero temperatures on Tuesday, February 1, 2011, to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust in the Nazi camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the invitation of the Aladdin Project in partnership with UNESCO and the City of Paris.
and government of France, Poland, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Turkey, the UK and the USA were also present.
Ten Holocaust survivors - Raphael Esrail, Roman Frister, Ida Grinspan, Ginette Kolinka, Meir Lau, Yvette Levy, Samuel Pisar, Izio Rosenman, Nicolas Roth and Marian Turski - took part in the visit and shared with the visiting dignitaries their experience and the horrors they suffered in the camps.
The visit of this international delegation, led by Aladdin Project President Anne-Marie Revcolevschi; Aladdin Fund Chairman David de Rothschild, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, and Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, was to recall the dramatic consequences of Nazism and fascism, to reject Holocaust denial and trivialization of the Holocaust and to call on political leaders, intellectuals and religious figures around the world to fight against old and new forms of anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance.
Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal and of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and three Algerian, American, British, French, German, Iraqi, former heads of state, Nicéphore Soglo of Benin, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Moroccan, Pakistani, Stepjan Mesic of Croatia and Ely Ould Mohamed Palestinian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Tunisian Vall of Mauritania, accepted the invitation of the and Turkish intellectuals and political and religious organizers of this exceptional journey. Asha-Rose leaders came together at the International Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Monument in Birkenau, where former Chief Nations and special envoy of Ban Ki-moon; Rabbi of Israel Meir Lau, Archbishop of Paris former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; Cardinal Vingt-Trois and the Great Mufti of Bosnia Mevlut Cavusoglu, President of the Parliamentary Dr Mustafa Ceric presided over an ecumenical Assembly of the Council of Europe; and special ceremony and offered Jewish, Christian and envoys and representatives of the heads of state Muslim prayers for the victims of the Holocaust.
10 In Auschwitz, next to Bertrand Delanoë and Anne Hidalgo, the mayors of Bamako, Bucharest, Casablanca, Cotonou, Cracow, Erbil, Fez, Libreville, Madrid, Meknes, Oswiecim, Ouagadougou, Rabat and Sarajevo laid a wreath at the foot of the wall of Block 11, where executions by firing squad took place.
The visit ended with a landmark speech by Samuel Pisar in the name of all the survivors present. Many personalities who could not join the international delegation sent messages of solidarity, such as HRH Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco; Prince Hassan of Jordan; the Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Gomaa; the Great Sheikh of “Here in Auschwitz- Al-Azhar Dr Ahmed Al-Tayeb; the Grand Mufti of Birkenau, where darkness the Caucasus Sheikh Allahshukur Pashazada and the Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit. fell, let us commit to bring more light to the world” This visit generated impressive media coverage with more than a thousand articles and news Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of reports in the world: 35% from Europe, 20% the United Nations, former Minister of Foreign from Turkey, 21% from the Middle East and Affairs of Tanzania Africa, 18% from North America.
11 “IN THE LANGUAGE OF THY NEIGHBOR”: BOOKS, INTERNET, TELEVISION, CINEMA
2011 was marked by significant advances in the dissemination of knowledge about the Holocaust, the history of Jewish-Muslim relations and Jewish culture and religion in Arabic, Persian, and to a lesser extent, Turkish. Having identified the language barrier as one of the main obstacles to intercultural understanding between Jews and Muslims, we continued to give priority to projects that overcome these deficiencies through books, television programs and the Internet. We also started our efforts to familiarize the Western world with Muslim cultures by a presentation of Islam for English and French readers.
BOOKS: THE CORNERSTONE As announced in 2010, from among the various OF OUR ACTION book fairs we could have attended, we chose the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, one of the The Aladdin Library’s e-books largest in the world with 7,500 exhibitors from 110 countries, including a large number from the A pioneer in free access to digital books in Arabic Middle East and North Africa. On 13 October and Persian, the Aladdin Library has been offering 2011, we presented the 18 books of the Aladdin to readers four books translated into Arabic and Library at a round table, an event reported by Persian. In 2011, we added five more books to the many German and international media outlets. collection. Anne-Marie Revcolevschi; Moroccan philosopher Abdou Filali-Ansary; President of Turkish PEN Tarik
12 Gunersel; Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, Co-Presidents although in some cases these numbers are made of the Association of Sons and Daughters of Jewish public: on the website of the Digital Library of Iran, Deportees from France; author and director Ketabnak, for instance, we read that by the end of Claude Lanzmann and Iranian philosopher Hamid 2011, 1,438 copies of Anne Frank’s Diary had been Ongha, explained to the attentive audience the downloaded, with readers grading it 4.8 out of 6 importance of knowledge and of understanding and many leaving interesting and overwhelmingly the history of the Holocaust through the works of positive comments. historians and academics and accounts of survivors and eyewitnesses. We also took note that other websites and newspapers of Arab-Muslim culture invite their “What happened to the Jews in Europe in the readers to connect to Aladdin’s Internet Library. It twentieth century is relevant for all humankind and is thus clear that its influence continues to grow. is part of our common history; this universal tragedy Several questions arose: How could we improve has a moral significance and should not be reduced the dissemination of digital books? Should we to a political event or a religious conflict [...]. We must continue the translation of other books on the do everything to learn our lesson from our past.”, Holocaust? Choose other themes? And especially, reminded Professor Filali-Ansary while Hamid how could we successfully disseminate printed Ongha added: “The books translated by the Aladdin versions of the books at affordable prices, via Project, highlighting the dangers of extremism, sound conventional channels of distribution, bookstores the alarm and contribute to the awakening of civil or via the Internet? society in a country like Iran… The Holocaust, this plunge into barbarism at the heart of the twentieth In order to answer these questions, and taking into century, took place in Germany, a country known account the spontaneous reactions sent to our for its culture, music and philosophy. It’s shocking to site, we decided at the end of 2011 to conduct see how seven decades later, Iran, in spite of its great a survey of subscribers of the Aladdin Online civilization and its long literary tradition, turns to denial Library, whose results are presented below (a and propaganda.” more comprehensive version can be found in the appendix). The growing popularity of digital books A survey of Aladdin Online Library users Thanks to these translations, the number of people using our Digital Library is growing even though Our survey targeted a randomly-chosen group we have not yet launched an advertising campaign. of 600 subscribers to the Aladdin Library. 438 Indeed, we note that by the end of 2011, more readers responded. Given the sensitivity of the than 35,000 books had been downloaded by issue in North Africa and the Middle East, we did Internet users from around the world: Iran, not ask questions of a personal nature beyond Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia name, country or city of residence. representing, in descending order, the largest number of downloads.
But we also observed that around forty other digital libraries in the Muslim world now also offer our books, and some, such as Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl or Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man, are also available on Google Books and many other specialized sites like the Persian website Tavana, the “Digital Training Institute for the Iranian Civil Society.”
It is impossible for us to know the exact number of books downloaded from other websites,
13 INTERNET: ALADDIN’S MULTILINGUAL WEBSITE
The multilingual website remains an important tool in our outreach to audiences around the world: it provides information in five languages on Holocaust history, Jewish religion and cultures, and a guide to Islam for non-Muslims. Since 2011 we have also strengthened our monitoring of current affairs: in addition to the media coverage of our initiatives, the website offers a press review of over 500 articles in the international press, especially Arabic- and Persian-language media, on three main topics: Five users responded in violently anti-Semitic terms without any relevance to the questions; • How the non-Western world deals with the 433 others responded in a more or less detailed Holocaust, manner. Below is a summary of their responses • Intercultural relations, especially Jewish- and the conclusions we drew from them. Muslim ties, • Developments in the Arab-Muslim world that ÙWe should improve the visibility and presence have a bearing on intercultural relations. of the Internet Library: only 15% of respondents found the Library through the website of the The website also contains interviews with Aladdin Project, while 54% reached it through personalities from different cultures and religions Google or other search engines, sometimes by who promote intercultural ties. chance. It is interesting to note the impact of recent ÙWhile 86% of respondents had heard of the upheavals in Arab countries on the number Holocaust before, some said that it was in the of visits to the website. Thus, the first three context of Holocaust denial or anti-Semitic months of 2011, which were marked by political propaganda. upheaval, saw a decline in the number of visits from the Arab world, especially Egypt, Tunisia Ù68% said that they gained a better understanding and Morocco. Over the following months, the of the subject through the Aladdin Library and 58% shared information with their families or visits nearly doubled, with a monthly average of friends, although many said it was “too risky” to 24,000 visits in the last three months of 2011. discuss the topic with others. The independent Internet traffic monitoring ÙRespondents expressed a clear wish that the agency Alexa ranks our website as one of the Library be expanded and cover other topics not most visited among the websites of intercultural easily accessible in the Arab-Muslim world, such institutions and according to its data, 156 as women’s issues. Many wanted to see works by organizations and media outlets are linked writers from the Muslim-Arab world added to the to it. About half the visitors to our site hold a Library. Some respondents complained that with university degree, and men and women visit the low speed Internet in their countries, downloading site in roughly equal numbers. The age group books took an excessive amount of time. most represented is that of 35-44 years followed by the 25-34 age group, but the 18-24 age group ÙMany respondents wished that Westerners is significantly under-represented, which suggests become better informed about the Arab-Muslim that the website should be improved and made world by getting better access to its classic and better known to young Internet users through modern authors. the social media.
14 In terms of geographical distribution, the 20 channels to arrange a telecast for audiences in countries with the largest number of visitors in different countries. 2011 were, in descending order, Turkey, Iran, the United States, France, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iran: government denounces “attempt to Belgium, Tunisia, Canada, UK, Australia, Saudi brainwash young Iranians” Arabia, Israel, India, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Switzerland and Pakistan. Interestingly, Shoah was broadcast for the first time in March visits from Muslim countries like Iran, Turkey and 2011 in one-hour episodes in Persian on Pars TV, Egypt came not only from the capital or big cities, a satellite television station based in Los Angeles but also from provinces and rural areas: in Turkey, with a large audience in Iran. The event was for example, while visitors from Istanbul, Ankara accompanied by a conference at UNESCO in and Izmir represented 52% of the total, there Paris, in the presence of Frédéric Mitterrand, the were many visitors from cities further east such French Minister of Culture, and many French and as Adana, Konya, Trabzon, Erzurum and Diyarbakir. Iranian intellectuals. In Iran, visitors from Tehran represented a little less than 50% of the total, but many visitors were The first broadcast ofShoah in Iran has been from Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz, Rasht, Kermanshah, followed and transmitted around the world by Ahvaz and Zanjan, indicating that visitors included numerous media: over 300 news agency reports not only Persians, but also Azeris, Kurds and ethnic and newspaper articles were devoted to it. Even Arabs. though for obvious reasons we cannot know the exact number of viewers in Iran itself, Alireza TELEVISION Meybodi, Pars TV’s lead anchor, told many journalists that the reactions from Iranians to this broadcast exceeded all expectations. “The station Millions of viewers in Turkey and Iran watch has received more than two thousand phone calls the first ever telecast of Claude Lanzmann’s and nine hundred emails from viewers in Iran and Shoah subtitled in Turkish and Persian abroad,” he told inquiring journalists.
Also interesting was the reaction of the Iranian government: after an initial silence, state- controlled media launched a scathing attack against the telecast of Shoah, accusing Pars TV of “licking the boots of Zionists” and calling the event “an attempt to brainwash young Iranians to win them over to the Zionist cause.”
Turkey: Shoah serialized by public television
Discussions with Turkey’s public broadcaster TRT on the telecast of Shoah with Turkish subtitles ultimately bore their fruit and the first broadcast was programmed for October 2011. A complicated geopolitical context delayed the Books are forever and the Internet is the medium event, however, and TRT finally began airing the of our age, but when it comes to cultural first part of the film on January 26, 2012, the influence, nothing beats the power of television, eve of the UN-declared International Holocaust and nowhere is this more true than in the Muslim Memorial Day. world. For that reason, after selecting French director Claude Lanzmann’s epic film, the nine- Minutes before the film was aired, Claude hour-plus Shoah, we devoted considerable effort Lanzmann addressed a gathering of six hundred and capital to subtitling the whole film in Arabic, people at Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul via Persian and Turkish and contacted many television
15 “It’s a truly historic Q - This “premiere” is happening at a time of a strained relationship between France event” and Turkey. Is this a problem?
Director Claude Lanzmann tells CL - Despite all the stories that are happening the French weekly Le Point that with France and the French Parliament about the the broadcast of Shoah on public Armenian Genocide, the Turkish organizers held television in Turkey was nothing short firm and broadcast Shoah, subtitled in Turkish, of a “truly historic event”. as planned...
Q - How do you interpret the screening of Q - Will you be present at the screening of Shoah in Turkey? Shoah in Turkey?
CL - It is a truly historic event. From Thursday CL - I recorded a video message that will be evening on, Turkey will be the first country with a broadcast during the opening ceremony in Muslim majority population to broadcast Shoah, Istanbul. a film that lasts 9 hours and 30 minutes, on TRT, the country’s main public television channel. We In it, I remind everyone that many people do not must salute the courage and determination of the recognize the universal lessons of the Holocaust, Turks who are doing this groundbreaking work. I in which six million Jews were exterminated by also praise the people who initiated the Aladdin the Nazis. I added that if I can cry while watching Project, whose aim it is to teach Arabs about a masterpiece by Turkish director Yılmaz Güney, Jews and Jews about Arabs. I had the opportunity I don’t see why Turks would not cry watching to give Master Classes to Turkish students on Shoah as if it was their own history, since it’s Shoah, released in France for the first time in about what is human in all of us. 1985. I was amazed by their professionalism, their understanding and intelligence, as well as by something deeply democratic that is going on in that country. Turkey is a country people do not know and understand very poorly.
a video message. Present in the audience were Istanbul Governor Hussein Avni Mutlu, Chief Rabbi of Turkey Ishak Haleva, the President of the Jewish community Sami Herman, Ambassador Ertan Tezgör representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone, Consul General of France Hervé Magro, the Consul General of Israel Moshe Kamhi, Executive Director of the Aladdin Project Abe Radkin, as well as Muslim religious leaders, academics, researchers, civil society leaders and more than fifty local and foreign journalists. watch the film as it was aired simultaneously on the TRT satellite channel. TRT executives estima- The prime time broadcast of Shoah continued ted that some 5 million viewers watched at least every Friday night in one-hour episodes, while part of the documentary during the nine weeks Turkish-speakers around the world could also of screening.
16 Although books and films about the Holocaust The usual critics were published and distributed in Turkey in the past, Professor Cengiz Aktar, interviewed Lebanese Hezbollah’s television channel, Al by Voice of America, found that “the majority of Manar, the state-controlled media in Iran and the Turkish public opinion is completely unaware official Syrian news agency were, unsurprisingly, of the history of the Holocaust [...]. Lanzmann’s virulently critical of Turkey’s decision to broadcast film being broadcast on television is a wise the film on public television. decision and a major event which can certainly be A commentator from Al Manar TV declared that described as historic.” “broadcasting, on Turkish public television, the movie Shoah by Claude Lanzmann, which deals with the so-called extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany, comes as a surprise and is wholly unjustified.”
In Tehran, a website close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lambasted the “hypocrisy of the Turks who flirt with Zionists,” adding that “Claude Lanzmann’s film had never been shown on public television in a Muslim country before, and the Turkish decision will result in a negative reaction Many Turkish and international media interviewed from Muslims around the world. Many experts the French filmmaker on the occasion of the movie’s screening in Turkey. “The screening of Shoah on state television in a Muslim country is an important step and I praise the leaders of the TRT” he said, “I hope that this initiative will lead other “I think that the broadcast of countries in the Muslim world to follow the good Shoah on television is example set by Turkey. No region of the world should ignore the universal lessons from the darkest hour an opportunity for younger of European history; lessons that are still relevant in generations to learn about today’s turbulent world. I praise the hard work of the the history straight from Aladdin Project to ensure a wide viewing of Shoah in Turkish, Persian and Arabic, and I support its efforts the victims” to reconcile Jews and Muslims through mutual understanding.” Ambassador Ertan Tezgör
The positive response to this broadcast was beyond all expectations: many intellectuals and commentators praised the Turkish TRT officials for showing this film. Nearly twenty television channels and more than 400 newspapers in Turkey and around the world have also echoed this event, various dispatches were taken on by news websites, Claude Lanzmann’s television interviews were shown repeatedly on some news channels and the press, radio, television and websites commented on the event.
The Turkish decision was generally well received by Arab media and newspapers with more than a hundred articles in the Arab world.
17 believe that the decision of Turkish television is an attempt to reduce the isolation of Israel and Before the light went out, the young director, improve ties between Ankara and the criminal Burak Arliel, explained that he “wanted to pay regime occupying Quds (Jerusalem).” tribute to these brave individuals who refused to be indifferent and inactive at a time when calamity CINEMA: HIGHLIGHTING fell on their fellow human-beings, and show that human values must transcend all religious, ethnic THE COURAGE OF MUSLIM and cultural differences.” The event came to an RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE end with moving testimonies by Mina Ozdoganci, NATIONS daughter of the Turkish Consul Fikret Sefik Ozdoganci who organized eight train convoys Since the creation of the Aladdin Project, from Paris to Istanbul from February to May promoting awareness of the actions of Muslims 1944, sending hundreds of Jews to safety, and who protected and saved Jews during the that of Nisso Barbouth, a boy passenger on one Holocaust, in cases that are historically well- founded, has been one of our main goals. We were thus partners in the production of two films that highlighted the role of Muslims in the rescue of Jews during the Second World War.
Turkish Passport, directed by Burak Arliel and produced by Gunes Celikcan and Bahadir Arliel, is the first docu-fiction about the Holocaust directed in a Muslim country. It recounts the little-known story of several Turkish diplomats who saved hundreds of French Jews of Turkish
of these “trains of life.” The film has since been screened in Germany, the U.S., Israel and Turkey.
The Aladdin Project also sponsored the film Les Hommes libres (The Free Men) by Franco- Moroccan director Ismael Ferroukhi, produced by Fabienne Vonier and Stephane Parthenay, a fiction based on a true story: that of a friendship forged in the worst moments of Nazi-occupied Paris between a Jewish singer of Algerian origin, Salim Halali, and the Rector of the Paris Mosque, Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, an influential cleric who, origin from deportation and certain death. through his courageous actions, helped a number of French Jews: “An iconic character in France at We premiered the film at the 64th Cannes Film that time, he was very ambiguous, close both to Festival in 2011 in cooperation of Interfilm the French Pétainist and collaborating authority, Istanbul and the Jewish community of Turkey. and close to the Sultan of Morocco, who protected The screening was followed by a discussion that the Jews at the time and refused to deliver them placed the film in its historical context. The event to the Vichy authorities. When the Anglo-American was well-received by the audience of festival- troops landed in North Africa in November 1942, goers. French and Turkish diplomats, politicians Ben Ghabrit, urged by the German authorities and filmmakers also attended the screening. to sever his ties with the Sultan and collaborate
18 professor; lawyer and historian Serge Klarsfeld; Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the Aladdin Project, and director Ismael Ferroukhi. This debate served to recall the complexity of an era that was aptly evoked in this film, to highlight all these cases where, contrary to popular belief, Muslims helped the Jews during a particularly tragic time in history, as well as to remember the common cultural heritage of Jews and Muslims as shown by the Arab-Andalusian music in the film. A few weeks later, in partnership with the city openly, bowed to their pressure. It was an extremely of Drancy, we again screened the film in the complicated balancing act. After the war, he was city’s cultural center in the presence of the decorated with the Medal of Resistance and mayor, Christophe Lagarde, followed by a panel remained at the head of the Paris Mosque until his discussion by Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Ismael death in 1954.” (Benjamin Stora, historian and Ferroukhi, Aziza Ben Ghabrit, the daughter historical consultant of the film). of the rector of the Paris Mosque at the time, and representatives of the Jewish and Muslim In September 2011, in front of 300 spectators, we communities of Seine-Saint-Denis. organized a premiere at the Cinéma des Cinéastes in Paris, followed by a discussion moderated by This event sparked much interest in the Muslim journalist Ivan Levai with the participation of community, especially among the young people. André Azoulay, adviser to the King of Morocco; History teachers from middle and high schools, Fatiha Benatsou, Prefect for Equal Opportunity in present that evening, expressed interest in the Val d’Oise; Ghaleb Bencheikh, theologian and showing this film to their students. President of the World Conference of Religions for Peace; Benjamin Stora, historian and university
19 Knowing Your Neighbor’s History and Religion
To overcome prejudice, anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance, we must combat ignorance through education. We are pursuing two educational initiatives that aim to contribute to this effort, first and foremost with two sets of publications.
Shared Histories: Knowing relations. Twelve books, to be published in Arabic, the History of Jewish-Muslim Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, French and English, are relations in preparation, tracing Jewish-Muslim history in Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Spain, Egypt, Israel-Palestine, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Production of a series of history books, Afghanistan and Iraq. Younger generations will translated into different languages, on thus have access, in their own language, to their Jewish-Muslim relations in twelve countries common history with its periods of conflict and in Africa, Asia and Europe. tension but also a long tradition of coexistence and exchange. Created for a wide audience and Many intellectuals and teachers in different Muslim especially teachers and students in middle and high countries have been telling us that the public and school, these books will be short, well documented particularly the younger generations in these and accessible. societies are completely unaware of centuries of Jewish presence in their lands. We have often A scientific committee of historians and experts, heard the same remark from Israelis and non- chaired by philosopher and Islamic scholar Abdou Israeli Jews that many in their communities are Filali-Ansary, oversees the realization of this equally uninformed about this shared history, with collection under series editor historian Michel all its vicissitudes along the centuries. Abitbol, author of numerous studies on the history of Jewish communities. In response, we have been pursuing a project to publish a series of books devoted to the history of Jewish communities in the Muslim world, a topic essential to the future of Jewish-Muslim
The committee: • Tudor Parfitt, professor of Modern Jewish Studies, SOAS, University of London • Lucette Valensi, historian, EHESS • Dariush Shayegan, Iranian philosopher and • Veinstein Gilles, professor of Ottoman and writer Turkish history at the Collège de France • Ilber Ortayli, historian, President of the Topkapi • Kazdaghli Habib, professor of Contemporary Museum in Istanbul History, University of Tunis-Manouba
20 The authors: • Iraq: Orit Bashkin, professor at the University of Chicago • Morocco : Mohammed Kenbib, professor and research director at the Mohamed V University • Yemen: Yossi Tobi, professor emeritus at the in Rabat University of Haifa
• Tunisia: Abdelkrim Allaghi, professor at the • Turkey: Heath Lowry, professor of Ottoman University of Tunis and Turkish history at Princeton University
• Spain: Mercedes Garcia-Arenal, research • Iran-Afghanistan: Dariush Shayegan director at CCHS-CSIC • India-Pakistan: Yulia Egorova, Senior Lecturer • Syria-Lebanon: Tarif al-Khalidi, professor at at Durham University the American University of Beirut (expected) • Egypt: Gudrun Krämer, Chair of the Institute of • Israel-Palestine: Amnon Cohen, professor Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Mohammed Dajani Daoudi, professor at • Algeria: Lucette Valensi, professor at the EHESS Al-Quds University
Know the Religion of thy Neighbor: A Training Program
Production of a book for the training of young priests, pastors, imams and rabbis, first published in French, English, Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Hebrew.
During the trip to Auschwitz in February 2011, many dignitaries of the three monotheistic religions expressed their deep concern over the rise of intolerance and extremism in the context of globalization, political changes and socio-economic concerns. Stressing the responsibility of religious leaders in the maintaining or establishment of peaceful relations among the peoples of Earth, Chief Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat and Dr Aly El- they emphasized the importance of familiarizing Samman, was formed to carry out this project, future religious leaders with other religions and beginning with the preparation of a book entrusted their common values. It is from these reflections to an interreligious working group. They invited that the training project “Know the Religion of thy several other dignitaries of Christianity, Islam and Neighbor” was born in October 2011: a ground- Judaism to lend their support to this project. breaking, non-proselyte initiative intending to complement the work done for many years by influential people, men and women of goodwill, in the context of interreligious dialogue. A committee, co-chaired by Cardinal Vingt-Trois,
21 The High Interfaith Committee
The Committee is co-chaired by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris; René-Samuel Sirat, the former chief rabbi of France and UNESCO Chair for Religions of the Book, Spiritual Traditions and Specific Cultures; and Dr Aly El-Samman, former Chairman of the Committee for Interreligious Dialogue of Egypt and President of the International Union for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue and Peace Education. The following personalities were invited to join the High Committee:
• Christianity (Catholicism): Cardinal Jean- Ceric*; the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Dr Rahmi Louis Tauran*, President of the Pontifical Council Yaran; the former Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Mustafa for Interreligious Dialogue; Cardinal Philippe Cagrici*; the Moroccan Minister of Habous and Barbarin*, Primate of the Gaules; Cardinal Peter Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Taoufiq*; Ravane Mbaye Turkson*, President of the Pontifical Council El Hadj*, a Senegalese religious leader; Dalil “Justice and Peace”; Cardinal Kurt Koch*, President Boubakeur*, Rector of the Great Mosque of of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Paris; and Mohammed Moussaoui, President of the Unity, and Bishop Michael Fitzgerald*, Apostolic French Council of the Muslim Faith. Nuncio to Egypt and delegate to the Arab League. • Islam (Shia): Sheikh Ul-Islam Allahshukur • Christianity (Protestantism): Rev. Jerry Pashazada* (Caucasus); Ayatollah Abolghassem Al- Pillay, President of the World Communion of Dibaji* (Kuwait); Ayatollah Ahmad Iravani* (Qom); Reformed Churches (WCRC); Rev. Munib A. and Ayatollah Seyed Ali Ghazvini (USA). Younan*, President of the Lutheran World Federation; Pastor Claude Baty*, President of the • Judaism: Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Protestant Federation of France; the Archbishop Amar; Chief Rabbi of Moscow and chairman of Canterbury, Rowan Williams; and Pastor Olav of the Conference of European Rabbis, Pinhas Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the World Goldschmidt; Chief Rabbi of France Gilles Council of Churches. Bernheim, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Sir Jonathan Sacks*; Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz*; David • Christianity (Orthodox): Patriarch of Rosen*, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland; Dr Norman Constantinople, Bartholomew I*; Patriarch Kirill I of Lamm, President Emeritus of Yeshiva University Moscow*; and Metropolitan Emmanuel of France. (New York); and Arnold M. Eisen, Director of the Jewish Theological Seminary (USA). • Islam (Sunni): the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa*; the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Mustafa * These personalities sent a positive response before the publication of this report.
22 INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH
While maintaining our contacts with people in the countries that we already introduced the Aladdin Project to in 2010 (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan…), our international development in 2011 was mainly directed towards the United States, Turkey and Belgium.
ALADDIN IN THE UNITED STATES We then presented the Aladdin Project to many other U.S. and international dignitaries during In April 2011, the Foreign Affairs Committee a dinner organized by Esther Coopersmith, of the U.S. Congress invited a delegation of the Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and former Aladdin Project to a special session to present its U.S. representative to the United Nations. Among past and future initiatives. The Ambassador of the guests were notably members of Congress France in Washington, François Delattre, strongly Nita Lowey from New York, John Tanner from supported the visit of this delegation, which Tennessee, Michael Chertoff, former Minister consisted of Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Jacques of National Security, as well as the Ambassadors Andréani, Samuel Pisar, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia of Turkey, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Mustafa Ceric and Executive Director Abe Radkin. Yemen, Morocco and Bahrain in Washington.
Thanks to the meeting organized by the French chargé d’affaires in Washington, François Rivasseau, we could explain the objectives of the Aladdin Project to several representatives of the diplomatic corps and American Jewish organizations.
Finally, our delegation also attended the dinner of the conference “The United States and Islam” organized by the Brookings Institute, where Hillary Clinton, the guest of honor, made an important speech on the “Arab awakening and the policy of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chair of the the United States”. Having briefly been familiarized Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress, with the Aladdin Project, she invited Abe Radkin and her Democrat counterpart, Howard L. to contact the director of her cabinet, Huma Berman, emphasized the importance of Holocaust Abedin, in order to organize a meeting between education, particularly “in the language of the the officials from the State Department and the other” and praised the awareness-raising of the managers of the Aladdin Project. Aladdin Project in this area.
After Gary Ackerman’s words of praise, the Chair ALADDIN AND TURKEY concluded the meeting by again congratulating the leaders of the Aladdin Project and announcing that After the launch conference of the Aladdin Project she intended to contact officials from the State in March 2009 at UNESCO in Paris, to which Department to see how the United States could Turkish President Abdullah Gül sent a personal support some of our initiatives. emissary, the conference in Istanbul in 2010 with Claude Lanzmann and Jean François Forges, and
23 finally the trip Auschwitz in February 2011 in headed by Osman Kavala which seeks to promote the presence of a very large Turkish delegation, mutual understanding between peoples through we sought to strengthen our relationships with arts and culture. several partners of the Turkish political and civil society. We had the pleasure to initiate several projects which emerged in 2012 or will be carried out in It must be noted that the Turkish delegation that 2013. took part in the February 2011 visit to Auschwitz organized by the Aladdin Project was the largest ALADDIN AT THE PARLIAMENT delegation: its fifteen members included former IN BRUSSELS Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis, who represented President Abdullah Gül, and Egemen Bagis, With the help of the Belgian Friends of Aladdin Minister for European Affairs, who represented and its Chairman, Hubert Benkoski, a panel Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following discussion named “A bridge between cultures: the the visit, more than 300 articles were published in experience of the Aladdin Project” was organized the Turkish press, including a significant number of in December in the French-speaking Parliament in columns and editorials. Intellectuals such as Ilber Brussels to publicly launch this sister organization. Ortayli noted that never before had the Turkish In the presence of numerous representatives of the public been exposed to so much information Jewish and Muslim communities, imams and rabbis, about the Holocaust. We also organized a special youth from all sides but also parliamentarians screening of Shoah by Claude Lanzmann, subtitled and academics, we could address the issue of in Turkish, at the International Film Festival in intercultural and interreligious conflict in Belgium. Istanbul in April 2011 in the presence of the director.
As we explained earlier, broadcasting the film Turkish Passport and Shoah significantly helped strengthen our relationship. Our network in Turkey comprises today some 250 Turkish personalities from politics, media, business and culture who share and support our goals and values. Among them of course Professor Nilüfer Göle, a member of our Board of Directors, but also Professor Ilber Ortayli, Chair of the Topkapi Museum and a member of our Scientific Advisory Board of the collection “Shared Histories”; Dr Our discussion was highly topical: Belgium is a state Cengiz Aktar, writer and academic; Ambassador marked by communal conflicts between Flemings Ertan Tezgör, the Turkish representative to and Walloons, by the immigration of Moroccans the Task Force for International Cooperation and Turks that has been steadily growing in the on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and last thirty years, by the destruction during the Research; and Tarik Gunersel, President of the Holocaust of half the Jewish community that had Turkish Pen Club. been living in Belgium for centuries (the biggest community of Orthodox Jews in Europe is still Throughout 2011, we established long-term in Antwerp), by various tensions among the partnerships with the official governmental population and the rise of Islamist movements. delegation to the Task Force as well as private There more than anywhere else, intercultural Turkish institutions such as Bahcesehir University dialogue seems not only necessary but positively of Istanbul, Turkey’s Jewish community, the Tekfen urgent. Hence, several Belgian personalities like Foundation, the International Film Festival of Professor Thomas Gergely, historian Joël Kotek, Istanbul, the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and MP Viviane Teitelbaum, but also Imam Abdelhady Arts (IKSV) and Anadolu Kültür, a dynamic NGO Hassany, Professor Mohamed Jamouchi, actor Sam
24 Touzani, Bishop Guy Harpigny and many others of dialogue and respect for others, particularly have deemed necessary to adhere to the Belgian through education and knowledge of the culture branch of the Aladdin Project and to carry values of the other.
Julie de Groote, President of the French- Mehdi Benallal, a young student and founder speaking Parliament in Brussels: “I invite civil society of the Committee for Jewish-Moroccan Friendship to storm the Parliament to speak of citizenship in and Dialogue, which works locally on promoting times of parliamentary crisis and, with the Aladdin dialogue between communities: “The Jewish- Project, to experiment living together.” Muslim dialogue sparked lots of enthusiasm among young people of both religions. The isolationism Serge Klarsfeld, President of the Association doesn’t stem from individuals, but from social of the Sons and Daughters of Deported Jews of structures and socio-economic challenges.” France: “The fight against Holocaust denial is a battle won in the West… It isn’t the case in the Thomas Gergely, Professor at the Free Islamic world. It was therefore reasonable and University of Brussels and Director of the Institute necessary to translate the great classic books on the of Jewish Studies: “All of us must build bridges. Holocaust, but also to write books on the history Civilizations need to go beyond living next to each of Jewish communities in the countries of the other, without losing their own basic values. It is Arab-Muslim world. Who remembers that once, thus important to have the audacity to approach Baghdad was the capital of the Jewish world?” the Other, to dare say everything, even what may anger. Otherwise, the encounter will be nothing Rashid Benmokhtar, former Minister of but a mummer’s farce.” Education of Morocco, now President of the National Human Development Observatory: Hubert Benkoski, coordinator of the Aladdin “When I was the president of Al Akhawayn Project – Belgium: “The Aladdin Project, it’s not University, I had discussions with students about the only going towards the Other, but also doing it construction of a synagogue and a church within differently. If there are generalizations or amalgams, the University, and I remember with astonishment it’s sufficient, to break these, to boldly assert that that the youth felt that the Jews had arrived in we think like the Other, that we think differently.” Morocco ‘in the suitcases of the French’.”
25 MONITORING AND ACTION
Attentive to the topics related to our priorities, we have sometimes had to take initiatives.
Egypt: No French, European France and Europe “not to betray the true defen- or American funds for ders of democracy and freedom-loving youth in anti-Semitic and Holocaust- these societies by providing financial assistance to promoters of racial hatred and Holocaust denial.” denying organizations She added, “It is clear that Ezz El-Arab doesn’t speak Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, Vice-President of the Wafd on behalf of all the Egyptians. While Holocaust denial party in Egypt, declared during an interview with and anti-Semitism are a problem in this society, we the journalist Ben Birnbaum (published in the haven’t forgotten, on the contrary, the clear state- Washington Times on 5 July 2011) that the Holo- ments on the Holocaust and the dangers of anti-Semi- caust “is a lie and the Diary of Anne Frank a fake.” tism made by eminent Egyptian personalities such as His comments were repeated on the Arabic web- Dr Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr Ahmed site of the Wafd party. El-Tayyeb, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and intellec- tuals like Dr Aly El-Samman and political scientist and The U.S. Agency for International Development writer Tarek Heggy”, fearing however that these (USAID) having made public its aid program for voices are today being suppressed. “democratic development” in Egypt in March 2011 with a budget of US$ 65 million, we alerted Indeed, a few months later, on 6 October 2011, Hillary Clinton so that the United States wouldn’t the famous Egyptian actor Nour Al-Sharif made finance Holocaust-denying or adamantly anti-Se- Holocaust-denying comments in an interview on mitic private or public institutions, political parties CBC Television TV, citing for instance “Garaudy, or NGOs. whose doctorate was withdrawn by the Israeli lobby after he proved that the gas chambers were Similarly, recalling that by 2013, the European a Jewish… and Israeli lie, and expressing doubts Union intends to allocate € 50 million to support about the number of victims”, referring to philoso- reforms in Egypt in the fields of democracy, human pher and Muslim convert Roger Garaudy’s decla- rights and justice, we sent the same request to the rations on that issue. French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to Cathe- rine Ashton, calling on France and the European On 6 December 2011, Aly El-Samman, President Union to ensure that NGOs, political parties and of the International Union for Muslim-Jewish- media propagating Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism Christian Education for Peace and Co-Chair of the and religious intolerance wouldn’t be eligible for Committee on Religious Relations of the Aladdin the EU’s economic aid, which is clearly intended Project, answered him via the press: “I’m telling you, for democratic development in Egypt and other my dear Nour Al-Sharif, honestly and in good faith, Arab countries. what I’ve already said during a previous conference, that anti-Semitism is part of the racism that Islam and Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, in an interview with Christianity are fighting… Egypt, under Gamal Abdel François Zimeray, Ambassador for Human Rights, Nasser, made the fight against racism one of its major and Pierre Boussaroque, Counsellor for Legal, Judi- battles. I was proud of President Gamal Abdel Nasser cial and Human Rights Affairs of the Minister of when, on 25 February 1967, he met with the Jewish Foreign Affairs, Alain Juppé, insisted on the duty of writer Claude Lanzmann, creator of the film on the
26 Holocaust, as well as the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre Another participant, Nasser Hassanpour, after and Simone de Beauvoir. At this meeting, Nasser denouncing the “Zionists who made up the Ho- exchanged ideas with Lanzmann on the future of the locaust”, added that “against the global campaign Arab-Israeli conflict and he especially asked if it was by more than 250 museums and institutions to possible to believe that Israel would choose the path support the lie of the Holocaust, it is our duty of peace. I have not found a trace of anti-Semitism on to provide facts and arguments proving that the the part of President Nasser. Dear Nour Al-Sharif, our Holocaust never happened.” This book joins a list cause today is to defend the legitimacy of Palestinian of more than 200 anti-Semitic books published in rights, and in this battle, we do not need to make Persian and Arabic, and exposed at the Tehran anti-Semitic remarks.” Book Fair this year. This list of books was cata- logued by the Aladdin Project. IRAN: Holocaust-denying books at the Book Fair in List of books: http://www.projetaladin.org/en/a-report-on-tehran- Tehran international-book-fair.html
Since the first Holocaust-denying conference that took place in Tehran in December 2005, which, incidentally, was at the root of the creation of the Aladdin Project, we have observed the evolution of Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist publications. Thus, during the book fair held in Tehran in May 2011, we began to systematically catalogue the Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist books, both old and new. With more than 5.5 million visitors, this fair is the largest in the Middle East. Over 200 titles were identified, among which, this year, new editions of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The government agency Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) reported that a conference was held to launch a new book in Persian, The Holocaust and Revisionism, bringing together a compilation of writings from 37 Holocaust deniers originating from Europe, the U.S., Australia and Japan: an opportunity for the participants to call the Holocaust a “myth” and “lie propagated by the Zionists who have enormous political and financial means.” According to Soroush Nejad, one of the authors of the book, this compilation, published by the Institute for Policy Research, based in Tehran, should be translated into several other languages soon. “The false story of the Holocaust spread through propaganda that was well planned and financed by Zionists,” he said in this conference, “historical research has shown that there never was a population of six million Jews before 1939 and even if it were the case, Hitler couldn’t have arrested and killed them all.”
27 EXPERTS AND OFFICIALS FROM A DOZEN NATIONS MEET TO DISCUSS ALADDIN’S STRATEGY
A better identification of new obstacles and 3. Develop intercultural bridges; combat the challenges but also opportunities on the road progressive standardization of societies in the Arab to knowledge, dialogue and intercultural world that are threatened by the rise of Islamic reconciliations, led us to consult with politicians parties; increase awareness of the shared history and intellectuals from the Middle East, Africa of Jews and Muslims in these countries, especially and Europe that we gathered together in Paris in through education; combat sectarianism and December 2011. isolationism of the Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. Be more involved in European and The meeting, chaired by Professor Abdou Filali- international initiatives related to these issues. Ansary, focused therefore on our policies, our actions and their potential impact in terms of 4. Fight against anti-Muslim racism in Europe by political upheaval in the Arab world. Now, faced collaborating on educational projects aimed at a with these changes and the arrival of new, more better adaptation of Muslim populations to the or less radical Islamic powers, all participants were Western lifestyle, particularly in partnership with committed to pursuing the goals and the strategy the European Union. followed so far, while also making some new proposals: 5. Start being involved in the Israeli-Palestinian issue, not on the political level but with civil society: 1. Continue the fight against Holocaust denial, promoting a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian the trivialization of Holocaust denial in the Arab conflict, the key to any real reconciliation between and Muslim world, and anti-Semitism; continue Jews and Muslims, by reaching out to the Jewish to make the history of the Holocaust known, and Israeli communities so that they can take full its roots, the political and ideological context of advantage of the opportunities presented by the Nazism, its consequences, the specific roles of the Arab world, which is presently still concentrating different Arab countries, the role of the Muslim on its internal problems; promote different means Righteous and the universal lessons to be learned of communication between Arab, Palestinian that concern us all. and Israeli societies; break the taboo in Arab countries about anything Israel-related. Finally, 2. Reach a wider audience, beyond the elite, initiate a dialogue with tolerant Islam, make the and primarily target youth; diversify the forms voice of moderate Islam heard, help draft new of implementation in new ways. Adopt a new constitutions in the Arab world to make sure that approach: to develop, for example, a satellite fundamental freedoms and the rights of minorities television like Al Jazeera, creating a show that are guaranteed. reflects the values of the Aladdin Project, using podcasts and all other digital means that are likely We are examining the ideas of this very to reach a wider, more popular audience. Create ambitious program in order to identify the a “Junior Aladdin” in touch with universities in priorities in accordance with the human and the Arab-Muslim world, and create and develop financial resources that they need. interactions through social networks.
28 The participants* at the meeting entitled “Promoting intercultural relations at the time of the ‘Arab Spring’: what prospects for the Aladdin Project?”, chaired by Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, philosopher and Islamic scholar
Colette Avital, Israel, Honorary Vice-President Aladdin Project: of the Knesset Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the Rashid Benmokhtar Benabdellah, Morocco, Aladdin Project former minister, President of the National Human Development Observatory Jacques Andréani, Ambassador of France
Adel Darwish, UK, Egypt-born journalist and André Azoulay, Morocco, advisor to the King author of Morocco, President of the Foundation “Anna Lindh” Jean Daniel, France, journalist and columnist Fatiha Benatsou, France, Prefect for Equal Rafik Hassani, Algeria, Algerian member of Opportunity in the Val d’Oise the Parliament of the Rally for Culture and Democracy party (RCD) Marie-Hélène Bérard, France, President of MHB SA Tarek Heggy, Egypt, thinker and author Anny Dayan Rosenman, France, university Kamel Jendoubi, Tunisia, President of the professor Independent High Electoral Commission Hakim El Karaoui, France, partner at Roland Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain, former Berger Strategy Consultants Foreign Minister and Special Envoy of the European Union in the Middle East Nilufer Göle, Turkey, anthropologist and Sari Nusseibeh, President of the Palestinian Research Director at the EHESS University of Al-Quds Jean Mouttapa, France, director of the Living Said Saadi, Algeria, Algerian Member of Spiritualities Collection, Albin Michel Publishers Parliament, Chairman of the party Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) Abe Radkin, Executive Director of the Aladdin Project Hubert Védrine, France, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Julia Chardavoine, Project Manager
François Zimeray, France, Ambassador for Joëlle Debré, Project Manager Human Rights
* An important Iranian leader from the Green Movement actively participated to the round table but wished to stay anonymous.
29 30 Looking Ahead: Projects Underway
31 BOOKS: THE LIBRARY EXPANDS, ALADDIN GOES TO BOOK FAIRS
Bringing our books to libraries and universities in The Israeli Ministry of Education pledged to the Arab world will be one of our goals. purchase a large number of our books to distribute them to the country’s Arab schools. After the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011, we plan, in partnership with the Moroccan editor Abdelkadir We hope to release the first out of twelve books Retnani, to present our books in print and at of the “Shared Histories” collection: the first four affordable prices at various Book Fairs in the books should come out in 2013 and 2014. Muslim world.
FILM AND TELEVISION
Negotiations are underway with Al-Hurra TV, of French cultural centers in certain countries, and based in Dubai, for the dissemination of the we hope to partner with other organizations. Arabic version of the filmShoah . We also plan to complete the creation of a Shoah box with the In Rabat, in partnership with the National Library DVD and the book in their Arabic, Persian and of the Kingdom of Morocco and the National Turkish translations in order to distribute them Commission for Human Rights of Morocco, we in the Arab-Muslim world. The French Ministry plan to organize an International Film Festival on of Foreign Affairs has already pledged to help us Jewish-Muslim relations. with this project, including through the network
EDUCATION
In spring 2012, we will organize an international first educational seminar on the history of the conference in partnership with Bahcesehir Holocaust for instructors of different educational University in Istanbul, under the sponsorship institutions in Turkey and some other countries. of UNESCO, on the little-known role of some German and Austrian Jewish academics who At the university level, in partnership with the fled Nazism and were welcomed in Turkey Turkish NGO Anadolu Kültür, the first summer between 1936 and 1938, and their impact on the universities of Aladdin are also in preparation. modernization of the university system. Their intention is to bring together faculty and students from different universities from the Fall of 2012, we plan to organize in Istanbul and Mediterranean. with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey the
32 CONFERENCES: ISTANBUL, KIEV, NICE
Kiev (Summer 2012) United States, Canada (2013) “Winds of change: the role of religions in the In cooperation with the embassies of France to the world today and its challenges for democracies United States and Canada and with the support of and secular societies,” an international interfaith the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the presentation of conference organized by MP Oleksandr Feldman, the Aladdin Project in several cities in the United president of the Kiev Interfaith Forum (speech by States and Canada. Anne-Marie Revcolevschi at the Ukrainian Parlia- ment). Paris (November 2012) The first Gala dinner of the Aladdin Project. Brussels, Sarajevo, Baku, Istanbul (27 January 2013) France (2012-2013) In preparation, one week on “The Holocaust Training projects of History teachers in and the Muslim World”, in partnership with the cooperation with the Ministry of Education Council of Europe, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia (Project: “Shared Histories”). The insertion of Mustafa Ceric, the Jewish community of Istanbul, France into the project “Know the Religion of Thy the Belgian Friends of Aladdin and the Grand Neighbor”, in cooperation with the Ministry of Mufti of Azerbaijan Sheikh Ul-Islam Allahshukur the Interior. Pashazada.
33 Patrons and International Support
Patrons
HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan
Jacques Chirac, former president of France
Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, former president of Mauritania
Abdoulaye Wade, former president of Senegal
Gerhard Schröder, former chancellor of Germany
Sheikha Haya al-Khalifa
International Support
HRH King Mohammad VI of Morocco
François Hollande, President of France
Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of France
Shimon Peres, president of the State of Israel
Bill Clinton, former president of the United States
Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Britain, Quartet Representative to the Middle East
John Jerry, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Senate
Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress
Annette Schavan, Federal Minister of Education and Research of Germany
Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and writer
34 A CALL TO CONSCIENCE
“A Call to Conscience” is the declaration In the face of ignorance, prejudice and competing of principles of the Aladdin Project. It was memories that we reject, we believe in the power signed by President Abdoulaye Wade, Mr. of knowledge and the primacy of History. We Jacques Chirac and Mrs. Simone Veil at therefore affirm, beyond all political considerations, Aladdin’s launch conference on behalf of all our determination to defend historical truth, for no the participants. Since then, hundreds of peace is built on lies. The Holocaust is a historical fact: intellectuals and public figures from around the genocide in which six million European Jews were exterminated. Its scope is universal, for it was the the world have added their signatures. values of dignity and respect for human beings that Nazi Germany and its European accomplices sought to destroy. To deny this crime against humanity is not only an insult to the memory of the victims, but also an insult to the very idea of civilization. Hence, we believe that the teaching of this tragedy concerns all those who have at heart the will to prevent further genocides.
The same requirement of truth calls on us to recall the actions of the Righteous in Europe and in the Arab and Muslim world.
Together, we declare our common desire to promote a sincere dialogue, open and fraternal.
It is in this spirit that we have gathered around the Aladdin Project. We call on all men and women of conscience around the world to work with us in this common Endeavour for shared knowledge, mutual respect and peace. We, women and men in public life, historians, intellectuals and people from all faiths, have come together to declare that the defense of values of justice and fraternity must overwhelm all obstacles to prevail over intolerance, racism and conflict.
With every passing day, we witness a rising tide of hatred and violence filling the gulf of misunderstanding. This particularly affects the current relations between Muslims and Jews, while for centuries - in Persia, throughout the Middle East, in North Africa and across the Ottoman Empire - they lived together often in harmony.
We say clearly that the Israelis and the Palestinians have a right to their own state, their own sovereignty and security and that any peace process with such aims must be supported.
35 ORGANIZATION
Governance • Roch-Olivier Maistre, first Attorney-General at the Court of Auditors • Jean Mouttapa, director of the Living Spiritualities Executive Committee Collection, Albin Michel Publishers • Ndioro Ndiaye, minister in several governments in • President: Anne-Marie Revcolevschi Senegal • Vice President: Serge Klarsfeld • Martine Ouaknine, lawyer, Deputy Mayor of Nice • Treasurer: Roch-Olivier Maistre • Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the • Secretary General: Fatiha Benatsou Aladdin Project • Members: Jacques Andréani, André Azoulay • René-Samuel Sirat, former Chief Rabbi of France • Ex officio members (chairs of committees):Jean Mouttapa, Anne Hidalgo, René-Samuel Sirat, During this period of time, the board of directors met Aly El-Samman, Abdou Filali-Ansary on three occasions.
Board of Directors Staff
• Jacques Andréani, former Ambassador of France • André Azoulay, adviser to the King of Morocco • Abe Radkin, Executive Director • Fatiha Benatsou, Prefect for Equal Opportunities • Diana Tey, program officer, responsible for the in Val d’Oise websites, translations, publications and administrative • Marie-Hélène Bérard, President of MHB SA, affairs treasurer and member of the board of directors of • Eva Bertoin, program officer, project manager the CHIRAC Foundation • Julia Chardavoine, program officer, project • Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist, essayist, and manager women’s rights activist • Esther Amar, Colette Loeb, Cécile Gauzi, • Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer at the Joëlle Debré, Benjamin Honig, Sylvie University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot, specialist on Deloche participated in the implementation of Holocaust literature certain projects as volunteers. • Hakim El Karoui, partner at Roland Berger • For the organization of the trip to Auschwitz, the Strategy Consultants Aladdin Project reinforced its staff by employing • Aly El-Samman, President of the International part-time, starting October 2010, Myriam Union for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue and Peace Allouche and Mohamed Kamli. Education and of the Committee for Interfaith Dia- ...... logue of the Higher Council for Islamic Affairs of Egypt • Abdou Filali-Ansary, philosopher and Islamic scholar, Morocco Committees • Nilüfer Göle, Turkish anthropologist, director of research at EHESS Committees are responsible for studying project • Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris proposals in their area of expertise and then • Serge Klarsfeld, lawyer and writer, President of submitting them to the Board. the Association of Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France • Julia Kristeva, psychoanalyst and theorist of language Committee on Conscience and semiotics, chair of the Faculty of Languages and Literature at the University of Paris VII • Chair : Jacques Andréani, Ambassador of • Claude Lanzmann, writer and filmmaker France
36 • Driss Khrouz, director of the National Library of • Rafik Hassani, National Secretary in charge of Morocco international relations of the RCD, Algeria • Yasar Yakis, former Foreign Minister, Turkey • Fouzi Bettache, Secretary General of MOSAIC • Bakhtiar Amin, former Minister of Human Rights, Federation, France Iraq • Ilber Ortayli, president of the Topkapi Museum, Turkey Interfaith Committee • Driss El Yazami, president of the Council for the Moroccan Community Abroad, Morocco • Chairs: Dr Aly El-Samman, President of the • Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University International Union for Jewish-Christian-Muslim • Faouzi Skali, director of the Fez Festival, Morocco Dialogue and Peace Education, Chief Rabbi René- • Enver Yucel, president of Bahcesehir University, Samuel Sirat, Istanbul, Turkey • Dr Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia • Salah Stétié, poet and former diplomat, Lebanon • Dr Abduljalil Sajid, spiritual leader of the Pakistani • Daryoush Shayegan, philosopher and writer, Iran community in Britain • Doudou Diene, former UN special rapporteur on • René Gutman, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, France contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, • Father Patrick Desbois, president of the xenophobia and intolerance, Senegal Association Yahad Unum, France • Tarek Heggy, Egyptian writer and thinker • Alexander Sinyakov, rector of the Russian Orthodox seminary in France, in charge of ecumenical Book Committee relations of the diocese of Chersonese, Patriarchate of Moscow • Chair: Jean Mouttapa, directeur du département • Tareq Oubrou, rector of the Mosque of Bordeaux, Spiritualités aux Editions Albin Michel President of the Association of Imams of France • Joseph Maila, professeur en sociologie politique, expert de l'Islam et du Moyen-Orient, ancien Recteur Academic Committee de l'Institut Catholique de Paris • Djenane Kareh Tager, écrivain et journaliste • Chair : Professor Abdou Filiali-Ansary, franco-libanais philosopher, Morocco • Abdellatif Laâbi, poète, Maroc • Julia Kristeva, philosopher, chair of the Faculty of • Jean-Francois Colosimo, président du Centre Languages and Literature at the University of Paris-VII national du Livre (CNL), philosophe, théologien et • Nilüfer Göle, Turkish anthropologist, director of éditeur. research at the EHESS • Henry Rousso, historien, spécialiste de la 2ème • Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer Guerre Mondiale, directeur de recherches au CNRS (literature) at the University of Paris-VII • Joel Kotek, historien, professeur à l'Université Libre • Cengiz Aktar, political scientist and academic, de Bruxelles Turkey • Rachid Benzine, expert de l'Islam, auteur, • Ahmed Anwar Dezaye, president of the conférencier à l'Institut d'études politiques à Aix en- University of Salahaddin, Erbil, Iraq Provence • Mohammed Tozy, political scientist and academic, Morocco Committee • Adel Al-Kayar, university professor, Iraq • Mohammed Dajani, president of the Wasatia “Living together” Movement, professor at Al-Quds University • Jamaa Baida, professor at the University of • Chair: Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco Paris • Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer at University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot • Hakim El Karoui, partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants • Martine Ouaknine, Deputy Mayor of Nice • Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist, essayist, and women’s rights activist
37 FINANCIAL STATEMENT
The Treasurer’s Report : Foreseeable Developments
In comparison with last year, there has been a 17% For 2012, the organization should continue its increase in subventions, grants and donations. The activities on the same base as for the fiscal year biggest donators are still the same for both fiscal 2011. Its operating expenses should remain stable. years, including the Foundation for the Memory of The main projects are the distribution of printed the Shoah, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation and the versions of the books, progress with the “Shared Claims Conference. A multi-year convention with the Histories” collection and the implementation of Ministry of Defense is still underway. the “Know the Religion of Thy Neighbor” project Individual donations increased to 32k€, but still for the training of young theologians. The Claims represent less than 10% of the income. The operating Conference, the Safra Foundation, the Foundation result is of -170k€, mostly covered by non-utilized for the Memory of the Shoah and the Ministry resources from the past fiscal year. The net result thus of Defence already confirmed their support, as shows a deficit of 36 967€. did the Tolkien Trust Foundation and the City of Nice. Particular attention will have to be paid to • 60% of the budget, i.e. 374k€, was allocated the increase in donations. In that sense, the first to the three main actions of the Aladdin Project, fundraising Gala will take place in Paris in autumn notably the trip to Auschwitz (160k€), the subtitling 2012. of Shoah in three languages and its broadcast on Iranian and Turkish television channels (102k€), and the translation of five new books to Arabic and Persian (112k€).
• 28% of the budget was allocated to other 2011 projects of the Aladdin Project (round table of experts of the Muslim-Arab world in Paris, organization of three premieres in Paris and Cannes, development of multilingual websites and the “Shared Histories” collection).
• 12% of the budget was allocated to operating expenses.
38 Subventions AND DONATIONS
EXPENDITURES
The 2011 accounts of the Aladdin Project were approved and certified by Mr. Cyrille Brouard of the Mazar accounting group.
39 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We express our gratitude to the donators and to the institutional partners whose contribu- tions and partnership made our work possible.
The Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah
The Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation
The Claims Conference (“Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany”)
The French Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Memory, Heritage and Archives
The French National Centre of Cinematography
The Rothschild Foundation (Alain de Rothschild Institute)
The City of Nice
The Evens Foundation
The City of Drancy
Institutional Partners
UNESCO
The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
The French Ministry of Culture and Communication
The City of Paris
We thank Colorado Public Relations Agency, who took care of communication free of charge for the trip to Auschwitz on 1 February 2011 as well as for the launching of Shoah in Persian at UNESCO Headquarters on 7 February 2011.
40 41 APPENDICES
42 Broadcast of Shoah in Iran
Address by Anne-Marie Revcolevschi
Address by Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova
Address by Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication
Address by Claude Lanzmann
Broadcast of Shoah in Turkey
Address by Claude Lanzmann
Special briefing session of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (U.S. Congress)
Statement of Jacques Andréani
Statement of Anne-Marie Revcolevschi
Statement of Samuel Pisar
Statement of the Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceric
Survey of book readers
43 A FEW SPEECHES Message by Anne-Marie Revcolevschi to the Iranian viewers before the broadcast of Shoah in Persian by the Iranian satellite TV channel, Pars TV Paris, 7 March 2011
Good evening from Paris, About the movie – it took Claude Lanzmann eleven years to make it. It is an exceptional movie on all In a few minutes, the 1985 movie Shoah by Claude accounts, its content, its shape, its length. It is neither Lanzmann will be broadcast, subtitled for the first fiction nor a documentary. It is a detailed list of time in Persian. Subtitled in many other languages, evidence submitted to the court of humanity and millions of viewers all over the world have already moral conscience. Without ever showing images of watched it. the crimes committed, Claude Lanzmann patiently reconstructs with the help of witnesses, victims, I am thus happy that the Aladdin Project finally made Nazis, Polish onlookers, judges, fighters, diplomats, this exceptional movie available for Persian-speaking historians, the gears of this diabolical death machine. viewers, and I would like to thank the channels that A machine cut into little pieces for the film, each accepted to broadcast it. When it came out twenty- shedding a new light, as can be also seen in the book five years ago, like many others, the writer Simone de which has been translated by the Aladdin Library. But Beauvoir, the partner of Jean-Paul Sartre, said that this it is also a work of art: the imagery is striking, the faces film was a ‘masterpiece’. But before telling you more terrible or indifferent; the locations seem peaceful about this movie, I would like to thank you. To thank despite concealing mass graves, and Claude Lanzmann the thousands of readers who, through the Aladdin makes them speak out. He brings out what is hiding, Library, read the books that we translated for the to make the hushed voices heard. first time into Persian – Anne Frank’sDiary and Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man for instance. In his latest book, The Hare of Patagonia, Claude Lanzmann counters those who say that the Japanese Thank you also to all of you who expressed their and Chinese wouldn’t understand a movie like Shoah gratitude on our website, and told us that you because they didn’t experience it by saying, “But why? discovered or understood better the universal There is only one humanity.” It was thus necessary to dimension of this singular tragedy, the Holocaust – translate it into Persian. It’s because Abbas Kiarostami’s a term that has often been replaced, since Claude Taste of Cherry was translated into French that I was Lanzmann’s movie, with the Hebrew and Biblical personally affected by this movie, because I felt like it “Shoah”; i.e., a catastrophe of horrifying breadth. was also talking about me.
The knowledge of the historical truth is what drives Shoah will begin in a few seconds: it is this humanity, the Aladdin Project. For all those who joined us, or rather this denial of humanity that you will now the falsification of history is unacceptable, especially see, and I hope that afterwards you will not only be when it aims at ignoring the suffering of others. What convinced by the truth of this tragedy but also by the brings us together is the wish to build a world of necessity of preventing it from ever happening again. peace and justice, where everyone, woman or man, Have a good evening. has a right to respect and justice. But, as the Aladdin Project’s charter states, no peace is built on lies. The Holocaust is a historical truth. It is the genocide of six million Jews in Europe who were exterminated. Denying this crime against humanity is an insult to the remembrance of the victims, but also an insult to the mere idea of civilization.
44 Address by the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, at the launch of the film Shoah by Claude Lanzmann, in Persian. Paris, 7 March 2011
Mr. Frédéric Mitterrand, Honorable Minister Of course, as Simon Srebnik says at the beginning of of Culture and Communication the film: “No one can describe it … And no one can Your Excellency, the Ambassador, Permanent understand it.” However, a word and a turn of phrase Delegate of Israel to UNESCO, always open up to view a fraction of the truth. The Mr. Claude Lanzmann, Nazis did not want anyone to speak of “the dead” Madam President of the Aladdin Project, or of “victims”, but only of “Figuren”, which means Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, “puppets” in German. The atrocity of the genocide of the Jews is thus perceived to a small extent. I am most gratified to be afforded this new opportunity to be with you here again at UNESCO in connection The launching in the Middle East of this French film, with the Aladdin Project. live, in a few moments from Los Angeles, is central to UNESCO’s mandate. Besides, it is consistent with Last month, many of us met in Auschwitz, together the aspiration of peoples, especially in the Middle with representatives of all religions, in order to East, to freedom of information and the sharing of promote the rapprochement of cultures and to knowledge. UNESCO has promoted the Aladdin combat Holocaust denial. Many visitors travelled there Project actively from the outset and will continue to from the Middle East and, to my mind, they were do so for a long time. We have just signed with His deeply marked by that journey. Today we are attending Excellency Ambassador Nimrod Barkan an agreement a very special event. The translation of Shoah, the film to strengthen our education program on Holocaust into Persian is a decisive step towards sharing the truth remembrance and tolerance. I welcome it warmly and about the Holocaust worldwide. It reflects the wide I thank you all for your support. I now commend the variety of means at our disposal of continuing the task film to you without reservation. of teaching the history of the Holocaust. Thank you. Mr. Lanzmann, your film, “a masterpiece”, the “event of the century”, does deserve all of the superlatives used to describe it. It is a monument to the history of the Holocaust and a film masterpiece. The potency of the truth in this film and its emotive force stem in part from the variety of languages spoken in it – English, French, Hebrew, Polish, German and others. The truth is always expressed in one language, with silences and a specific vocabulary. An effort must always be made to translate history so as to ensure that it is understood. The interpreter is therefore the key character in the documentary, and the translation into Persian is thus of great moment.
45 Extracts from the Address by Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication, at the launch of Shoah by Claude Lanzmann in Persian Paris, 7 March 2011
Mrs. General-Director of UNESCO, It is thanks to this kind of initiatives that intercultural Dear Irina Bokova, dialogue can be promoted and take on concrete Mrs. President, dear Anne-Marie Revcolevschi forms in international arenas and the European dear Claude Lanzmann, Union.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Claude Lanzmann, in your autobiography, you write that you wished to bring the deaths of these millions In 1985, Shoah makes its appearance on the screens. of people, of whom nothing remains, closer to us. Everything changes: the testimonies of survivors are Remember their last moments, until now unthinkable. universal; the greatest tragedy of the 21st century Question the living, including the executioners who takes on faces and voices. It is immediately reachable. were holed up, hiding. How can one think about humankind after the Holocaust, Primo Levi asked? How can one think Those victims, you say, knew nothing of Auschwitz, about God after Auschwitz, asked the philosopher not the name, not the place, not even how they Hans Jonas? were murdered. They died in the dark, between four smooth stone walls. Thanks to the admirable initiative Remembering, transmitting to younger generations is of the Aladdin Project, thanks to the translations, a duty for today and a need for tomorrow. Forgetting thanks to accessible, multi-lingual information, this and amnesia lead to denials and all modern barbarities. place became a place of shared memory, a place Memory is the weapon of democracy and those who of knowledge, a place of recognition for all of fight for freedom. Knowledge of the past, the duty of humanity. history is what teaches us that the so-called “Clash of Civilizations” is first and foremost a clash of ignorance. This is why the Aladdin Project works for dialogue and intercultural rapprochement between the Jewish and the Muslim worlds. The Holocaust, its shadow cast over this whole century, is an industrialization of death that called into question all of Mankind. To know the other in your own language is to accept differences, encourage mutual recognition, begin a dialogue with this Other.
46 Address by Claude Lanzmann, at the launch of Shoah in Persian Paris, 7 March 2011
Mrs. Director-General, dear Irina Bokova, Pierre Vidal-Naquet: “One must never talk with Dear Minister, dear Frédéric Mitterrand, Holocaust deniers. One may talk of them, but talk Dear Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, with them, never”. Shoah isn’t trying to be evidence; Gentlemen Ambassadors, the reality of the extermination of six million Jews, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends, men, women and children, by the Nazis, doesn’t have to be “proved”, it is enough to visit the Jewish I would like to say here how grateful I am to all graves in Parisian cemeteries – it isn’t rare to see a those who initiated the Aladdin Project and fulfill its photography on a tomb, with the words “Dead. goals without being discouraged by the considerable Murdered or killed in Auschwitz (or Treblinka) difficulties. I honor the devotion and entrepreneurial in 1942 (or 1943).” Sometimes the date is more spirit of Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and Abraham complete, but they always have the same meaning: Radkin. But also the extreme care, the attention the tombs are empty. The only thing left from the to detail of the professionals who undertook to ashes of the dead Jews, scattered for a long time in translate Shoah into Persian, to better reach their Polish lakes and rivers, is this photo on a tombstone, fellow citizens in Iran, and the aesthetic success of as if the living couldn’t accept the brutal truth of its their work. The broadcast of Shoah, starting today, to death. The only proof is there, irrefutable, destined this great people, muzzled for thirty years in a clerical to be transmitted, inconsolably, until the end of time. dictatorship but who today struggles on the streets, is the most important action of the Aladdin Project When Shoah was broadcast for the first time in 1987, and will soon spread to other countries. on the first channel of French television, the French Holocaust deniers tried everything to dissuade The current president of Iran, Mahmoud viewers from watching it, printings leaflets saying Ahmadinejad, made his first Holocaust-denying “Open your eyes, break the TV”. They understood speech in 2005, shortly after his nomination: the that my movie, in which you don’t see a single Holocaust never existed; it’s an invention of the Jews corpse, was the greatest threat to them and, for and the Zionists. Since then, he perseveres more and their thesis, the absolute refutation. It is true that more fanatically, ordering a so-called scientific book there isn’t a single corpse in Shoah, but this precisely from the Institute of Studies and Political Research is the truth of the extermination, the sign of its in Iran, a state organization. It published a 50-page success. The well-known archive pictures showing brochure in Persian entitled “Shoah, a propaganda bulldozers pushing dead bodies have nothing to do movie”, written by Omid Rezaï. In the introduction, with the extermination camps, they were filmed he wrote: “Claude Lanzmann, Jewish filmmaker and in Germany after the liberation of the camps, the director of the famous movie Shoah, is one of the dead were the victims of a typhus epidemic. Three most important defenders of the Holocaust. He hours after the arrival of a “convoy” of three, four, made Shoah like a documentary to prove that the five thousand people to an extermination camp – Holocaust did take place. It is thus important to Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno, Belzec or Auschwitz dissect this movie and show its lies to better disprove –, death had already done its work: everybody had the Holocaust.” been asphyxiated by gas and their bodies burned in ovens or open pyres. The bigger bones, which Dissect, Comrade Rezaï, disprove as much as you resisted the fire, were turned into dust with wooden like, today, you won’t be the one who decides, the or stone pestles. The bagged ashes were thrown into viewers of Tehran and Shiraz will be, to whom the the wind. Aladdin Project gives the opportunity to judge by themselves. I didn’t make Shoah in reply to Holocaust Nothing was left, not a trace, the extermination deniers, to prove that they were wrong. I always was radical: human beings had been killed, but abode by the words of my great friend, the historian the destruction itself has been destroyed. It was
47 the perfect crime, denied at the very moment it Shoah isn’t evidence, President Ahmadinejad, it is happened. One sees that today’s Holocaust denial, much more than that: Shoah, against the destruction that of Mr. Faurisson or Mr. Ahmadinejad, is already at of remnants, builds a living memory, to which the heart of the Nazi project and the great massacre, participates a huge chorus of voices and faces, those and heralding it means subscribing to Nazism. Finally, of the victims, the assassins and the witness who anti-Semitism, this thousand-headed Hydra, has one were closest to the tragedy. This memory, precious single goal: the death of the Jews, and to give itself like blood, is the incarnation of truth. free reign, to allow itself to kill again, it needs to deny that the killing already happened.
48 Broadcast of Shoah in Turkey in January 2012 Speech by Claude Lanzmann during the ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day Thursday 26 January 2012 At Neve Shalom Synagogue Istanbul
My dear friends, of them from the Muslim world in order to launch a universal appeal for peace and respect. I would have been truly honored to be here tonight Representatives of the Turkish President and Prime with you, not through a videoconference, in Paris at Minister, many intellectuals and members of civil home, but in the flesh. For me it would have been not society were part of the Turkish delegation. After only a pleasure, but a great privilege. Unfortunately, the visit, the collaboration between the Aladdin a bad bronchitis keeps me in France and the doctors Project and Turkey has been strengthened. Several categorically forbade me to undertake the journey. projections of the film Turkish Passport by Burak Arliel on the righteous Turkish Muslims will soon be I am even more regretful as today is not a day like organized. any other. What will happen tonight on the public Turkish channel TRT is truly historic, and will have I would like to thank the Turkish intellectuals huge consequences. For the first time since its who have been working with the Aladdin Project, release in France and around the world in 1985, Professor Ilber Ortayli, President of the Topkapi my filmShoah will be officially broadcast in a Muslim Museum, Enver Yucel, President of Bahcesehir country with subtitles in Turkish in order to reach University, Professor Nilüfer Gole, Professor the widest possible audience. Cengiz Aktar, Cemal Usak, Vice-president of the Union of journalists, but also the members of the I welcome the decision of TRT officials. And I Jewish community in Turkey and its president, Sami would also like to commend the hard work of the Herman. Aladdin Project to ensure that Shoah will be aired to the widest possible audience in Turkish, Persian Today we commemorate the anniversary of the and Arabic. I was very sensitive to the infinite care arrival of the Red Army in the Auschwitz camp. given to the subtitling work, and to the beauty of the Exactly 67 years ago the first Soviet soldiers, characters on the screen in a language unknown to disbelieving and terrified, discovered a few thousand me. This projection, the first – I repeat – in a Muslim sick and dying persons that had, miraculously, country, is a pioneer, and I hope that other Muslim survived until this final day. The Auschwitz death countries will follow the good and fair example of factory had murdered a million and a half Jews and a Turkey. lot of gypsies interned there, in a specific part of the camp (we don’t have any reliable figures). I wholeheartedly support the Aladdin Project’s efforts to reconcile Jews and Muslims through mutual I did not make Shoah in order to respond to knowledge. Many initiatives have been undertaken Holocaust deniers, those who say that the Holocaust including the translation of major works on the is a complete fabrication of Jews and Zionists, and Holocaust into Arabic and Persian, the launch of a to prove them wrong. Shoah is not a question of multilingual website with reliable information on the proving. The reality of the extermination of six two religions, the publication of a books’ collection million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazis, on the history of the Jewish communities in Islamic doesn’t need to be “proved”. All you have to do is to lands, and a project for educating young rabbis, visit the Jewish graves in Parisian cemeteries and to priests and imams about the religion of the Other. see a photograph affixed to a gravestone, with the caption: “Dead. Murdered or killed in Auschwitz (or Last year, the Aladdin Project organized a visit Treblinka) in 1942 (or 1943)”. Sometimes the date to Auschwitz with an international delegation is more complete, but it still has the same heart- composed of 200 prominent politicians, academics, breaking meaning: the graves are empty of any body intellectuals and mayors from 40 countries, most or bone. The ashes of the dead Jews dispersed a
49 long time ago in rivers or lakes in Poland are reduced Tonight we will remember together all the darkest to this simple picture on the gravestone, as if the pages of European history and we will learn lessons living could not accept the brutal disappearance. from it. We will remember the need to fight for The only evidence is there, irrefutable, to be passed human dignity and against intolerance, discrimination down until the end of time. and all forms of racism. We will remember the importance of democracy and reliable institutions When Shoah was broadcast for the first time in 1987 which protect a country from individual and on the first channel of French television, French collective passions. Holocaust deniers did everything to dissuade viewers from watching the film by publishing notably leaflets It is no coincidence to me that Turkey is now the “Open your eyes, smash the TV”. They understood first Muslim country to present my film on public that my film, which doesn’t show any corpse, was the television. With its democratic system and moderate absolute refutation of their thesis and represented Islam, Turkey has become a model for Arab countries for them the greatest danger. There is not a single and governments after the recent revolutions. I body in Shoah, but this precisely shows the reality hope that these countries dare to follow the good and the success of the extermination itself. The only example of Turkey and commit themselves to teach known archival footage showing bodies pushed by a their people the universal lessons of the Holocaust. bulldozer have nothing to do with the extermination camps. They were shot in Germany at the time of the I would finally like to remind everyone that Turkey opening of concentration camps: the dead suffered was for thousands of years a haven for the Jewish typhus epidemic. Three hours after the arrival of communities. Many Jews found refuge here after a three, four, five thousand people "convoy" in an fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition or extermination camp - Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno, the Germanic states pogroms. The Turkish Jewish Belzec and Auschwitz - death had already done its community today is one of the largest in the Middle work: all of them were asphyxiated by gas, and their East. bodies were burned in ovens or on pyres outside. The large bones, which had resisted the fire, were When I finishedShoah , after twelve years of work, I reduced to dust by pestles of wood or stone. The thought the film would be seen by 3,000 elite people ashes were bagged up and thrown in the air. Nothing and that would have fulfilled my expectations. remained, not a single trace. The extermination was Hundreds of millions of people around the world, radical: humans were killed, but the destruction itself including Japan and China, have now seen my film was destroyed. It was the perfect crime, denied the and I am very moved to present it tonight to the very moment it was accomplished. Turkish public.
We have come a long way since 1945 in the European and global conscience. Only in 2005, the UN General Assembly unanimously designated January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Many people did not understand the importance of memory work in countries that had not been involved in the Holocaust. They did not recognize the universal impact of the Holocaust lessons. Auschwitz has gradually become the symbol of absolute evil. There is only one humanity. And if I can cry when I see a film by Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu or a masterpiece of Turkish director Yilmaz Guney, even though it is not at all from my culture, I see no reason why Turks could not cry when they see Shoah as if it was about their own history. Because this film touches what is human in all of us.
50 Special Briefing Session of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of the United States for Representatives of the Aladdin Project
Statement of Ambassador Jacques Andréani, Chairman of the Committee on Conscience of the Aladdin Project, before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives United States of America Washington, D.C., 13 April 2011
In fact, in some of the countries I allude to, such books have not even been translated into Arabic, or, as far as Iran is concerned, into Persian. I know one or two Arab countries of the Middle East where you can find easily in book shops or in officially sponsored book shows, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, or The Protocol of the Elders of Zion, but where you have no possibility of finding a book or pamphlet or magazine alluding to the German extermination camps.
In some countries, the official position with regard to the Holocaust is denial. People in official position tell you the Holocaust is a fraud, a Jewish fabrication designed to justify the creation of the State of Israel. This has been, for instance, the doctrine constantly held, and expressed forcefully and repeatedly, by the President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. How can a boy or a girl in Muslim countries, or even a grown-up man or woman, react to such a pronouncement, if they have I would like to thank the members of the Foreign never heard or read any mention of the Holocaust Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives at school, and never seen these terrible events for giving us the opportunity to talk about the Aladdin mentioned in books, newspapers, Magazines, films, or Project. TV shows? The point of departure of the Aladdin Project, which Every man or woman has the capacity to started several years ago at the French Foundation judge independently of what is right or what for the Memory of the Holocaust, was a factual is wrong. But their free judgment is based on observation : in some countries, there are things their knowledge of the facts. Governments, about the past, including the recent past, that are not particularly in non-democratic nations, have being told, events that are not recorded, as if they had powerful means to distort historical reality, never taken place. This is the case in some, not to decide which are the events that the all, of the predominantly Muslim countries man in the street is allowed to know, and of the Middle East. In such countries, there which ones will be hidden from him. Let not is a conspiracy of silence, in particular, about governments or political forces interfere the Holocaust of Jews by the Nazis. I use the with that. word conspiracy because all possible ways of learning about the facts are being blocked Faced with these restrictions of the knowledge of the at the same time. History books do not facts, we looked at the ways that could be followed mention the persecution of the Jews. These to redress the situation. We examined the problem facts are not part of school curricula. Foreign carefully, and we arrived at some conclusions. books that deal with the subject are not to be found in libraries or even book shops.
51 First, an action was necessary, and it was possible. It We went beyond that. It appeared to us that was necessary for the reasons I have just set forth. It ignorance of the facts, often maintained by public was possible because the world of Islam, especially the authorities, does not concern only the Holocaust. In Arab and Iranian world, make up an area where you fact, people in many Middle Eastern lands, know very have many cultivated and educated people, narrowly little about the Jewish people and Jewish culture and linked to European culture. Also, it was an area of religion. This is particularly striking in countries where great diversity, inside which it would be possible to along centuries, Moslems and Jews have been living find support. close to each other in conditions that were at times difficult, but, in many instances, conditions of peaceful The second conclusion was that, if a way could be coexistence and cooperation. For that reason, we found to get access to the people themselves, it put on the site basic data about the religion and the should be done without undermining in any way civilization of Jewish people and the contribution of local governments, that is in a strictly non-political the Jews to the life of the Middle Eastern nations. The manner. For the same reasons, the action should be site carries also statements concerning the necessity undertaken by a private entity. Western governments of a dialogue between religions, by Christian, Muslim might show a useful support, but should not be asked and Jewish spiritual, intellectual and political leaders. to do anything themselves. The Aladdin Project was solemnly launched at the Our third finding was that it would be essential Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris on March 23, to mobilize the explicit support of a number of 2009, at a special session attended by present or responsible people of the countries of the Middle former heads of state or government, political and East, including some well-known exponents of the religious leaders, figures of the academic world. On Muslim faith. We knew from the contacts we had that occasion, the Appeal to Conscience, which is the already established that this would be indeed feasible. Aladdin Project’s act of faith, was signed by former President of France Jacques Chirac, the President The problem was to find some ways of bringing to of Senegal Abdullah Wade, Mme Simone Veil, and people the information that was denied to them. It Her Highness Princess Haya Al-Khalifa of Bahrain. could be done through normal commercial channels, Particularly significant from a political point of view for example by helping publishers and distributors in was the participation in the Paris launching event of various ways, but that cannot go very far. Governments President of Senegal Abdullah Wade, who is at the can always prevent the profession from dealing with same time the Chairman of the Islamic Conference, books that they want to reject for political reasons. an international organization which groups 57 Moslem But the Internet makes it possible to circumvent such nations. Were also present the Director General of obstacles, because you can get directly to the people. UNESCO Matsuura, former Chancellor of Germany That is why we decided to create an Internet site Gerhardt Schröder, Former President of Indonesia that offers for reading and downloading the full text Abderrahman Wahid, and former President of of books concerning the Holocaust. The site exists Mauritania Ely Ould Mohammed Vall. Messages were in French, English, Arabic, Persian and Turkish. We read, sent by Nicolas Sarkozy, King Mohammed VI of created an ”On-line Library”, containing a number Morocco, Bill Clinton, Shimon Peres, Prince Hassan of books – historical studies, testimonials about bin Talal of Jordan. the persecution of Jews in Germany and occupied European countries, extermination camps and the A few words on the activities of Aladdin apart from mass-killings of Jews. We bought back the copyrights the online Library. Bringing to people information that of the books, we had them translated into Arabic was denied to them is just a basis. One must build and Persian, and we put them on the site, each with on that basis so that they should know each other, a preface written by a scholar, writer, philosopher or understand and respect each other. Only in that way political personality of Muslim faith, respected in his can the hope of a peaceful and harmonious life can be own country. The visits of the site were numerous. sustained. One of the aims of the Aladdin Project is Also downloading, by the thousands. About one half to encourage mutual understanding between human of the downloading was done on the Persian versions beings of different religious, cultural and national of the books, presumably mostly inside Iran. We background. To encourage it, not only by words, but know also that a great number of Internet sites in Iran also by concrete actions. show offer our Aladdin books, which they have taken without authorization, a fact that of course does not bother us at all.
52 For example, at the beginning of 2010, the that “pilgrimage”, which was extremely moving for Aladdin Project organized encounters in teaching all participants. There were survivors of the camps, establishment and cultural centers in ten cities of like Samuel Pisar. There were many Muslim dignitaries, Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Tunisia and among which His Eminence the Grand Mufti of Morocco, to study and celebrate the Italian writer Bosnia-Herzegovina. We were two hundred. The Primo Levi, author of If it is a man, a book about strength of the feelings that touched us all, the sense of the camps which we translated and placed in the tragedy and human fraternity that resulted from the Aladdin on-line Library. There were readings, talks terrifying surroundings and from the composition of by local teachers and by teachers and specialists this group, made this trip an unforgettable experience coming from France and other European countries, for all of us, Christians, Jews and Muslim alike. I’ll debates with the students and the public, discussions mention yet another action that was at the same time about the Holocaust and about the common life of extremely useful and quite spectacular. We made an Moslems, Christians and Jews in countries around the agreement with an Iranian TV network in California Mediterranean. to air the movie by Claude Lanzmann, Shoah. As you know probably, the Lanzmann movie, a masterpiece, This year, with the encouragement of UN Secretary says all about the Holocaust, and lasts nine hours. The General Ban Ki Moon and the cooperation of the city network in California is showing one hour a day. This of Paris, we invited civil and religious leaders from initiative of ours is having a tremendous echo among Europe, America, and the Moslem and Arab states, to Iranians, both in exile and in Iran, and has literally take part in a trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Mayors infuriated the power in Tehran. of cities situated in Moslem countries took part in
53 Statement of Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aladdin Project, before the Committee on Foreign Affairs - House of Representatives United States of America Washington, D.C., 13 April 2011
It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to achieved with satisfactory solutions for both parties. explain to you the objectives, priorities and already But the Aladdin Project is not involved politically in impressive achievements of the Aladdin Project. this issue. Its only involvement comes from providing Thank you. accurate historical information.
We have focused on promoting awareness of How do we combat denial? With books, information, the Holocaust among Muslims, with a key word, films,... New books will shortly be added to the education, because millions of them have been for Aladdin Library’s collection. A month ago, this had too long targets of dangerous and unacceptable never been done before, we organized with Iranian disinformation, coming now even into Muslim satellite television channels based in Los Angeles, the communities in Europe and North America through telecast of Claude Lanzmann’s movie Shoah, which the internet and TV satellites programs. Our decision we had subtitled in Persian; we know that it has been to act was based on precise monitoring and collection seen today by hundreds of thousands of Iranians in of information: Web sites, books, programs, Iran; the channel is going to broadcast it again and international conferences, political declarations etc. this is going to be followed in Turkish and Arabic elsewhere. President Ahmadinejad can deny and vilify We then defined three axes, based on moral, the Holocaust with caricatures and forged movies, intellectual and political grounds, and one method: but the Aladdin Project makes the knowledge of the formal and informal education in order to provide Holocaust available to the Iranian people and other Muslims with knowledge of history in their own peoples in the Muslim world, and they will judge by languages, using the Internet, as well as face to face themselves and decide who says the truth and who discussions. is lying. Accurate, precise and adequate information progressively finds its way to human conscience. The first axis is to fight Holocaust denial and trivialization, out of respect for the As for Holocaust trivialization, it must be emphasized memory of the six millions victims, and that the Holocaust was a unique event in history; in because denying historical facts is an insult its scale, reasons, mechanisms, consequences. We to human intellectual integrity. Precisely must therefore oppose any attempt to trivialize it because we respect Muslims, we do not and this was the main purpose of our February visit accept that millions of them be abused to Auschwitz. The uniqueness of the Holocaust by false prophets, insane anti-Semites or was there in front of them. And we will continue to dangerous political leaders whose only goal educate people in order to make them aware of the is to destroy the State of Israel. consequences of racism, fascism, discrimination, and anti-Semitism. This moral and intellectual imperative was shared, from the start, by many Muslims who decided to The second axis of our activities was the struggle join us. This has been a key reason for our impact. against anti-Semitism, particularly that emanating We sit, think and act together : Christians, Jews, from certain spheres in the Muslim world. Once Muslims, from different countries, listening to each again, we put the emphasis on education, on the other, united to combat ignorance, lies, and of course transmission of knowledge, providing information hate and intolerance. Our different experiences in Arabic, Persian and Turkish on Jewish religion, and backgrounds are a main asset, as shown by culture and history and also about the centuries-long the composition of our board and different ad hoc shared history of Jews and Muslims living together in committees. different parts on the Muslim world, recalling also the times when Muslim nations gave refuge to Jews who The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is on our mind; we were fleeing persecution. To educate the younger have different views on how peace could best be generation on this issue, we have recently concluded
54 an agreement with London University to start an well-known Muslim, Jewish and Christian historians online Master of Arts degree course on the history and will be in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and French and of Jewish-Muslim relations. I am confident that English. Other projects that will complement these numerous students around the world will choose steps include training courses for history teachers. this new subject. Madam Chairman,
Le troisième axe porte sur la transmission You are fully aware that the Middle East and North des valeurs et les rapprochements interculturels Africa, a region that has been the focal point of our et inter-religieux. En plus de la leçon universelle activities, is today in the grips of sweeping changes, a de la Shoah, nous avons plusieurs projets visant situation that presents not only new challenges and à promouvoir le rapprochement interculturel et threats, but also huge opportunities. transmettre les valeurs de la coexistence et de la tolérance aux jeunes générations. Nous développons The Aladdin Project has been building up an des cours universitaires d'été qui réuniront des extensive network of moderate and enlightened étudiants musulmans, juifs et chrétiens de troisième intellectuals and academics across the region. They, cycle, venus de différents pays, pour la formation à like us, believe that now is the moment when we la prévention et à la résolution des conflits et à la need to encourage the governments to implement gestion de la diversité. Éduquer la future génération changes in the educational system. We must not wait de dirigeants religieux est également une priorité until new textbooks are written by the new elites in importante. Nous avons réuni un groupe d'éminentes power. personnalités religieuses des mondes juif, chrétien et musulman pour produire des textes qui pourraient In this context, we are planning to organize a être utilisés pour éduquer les jeunes imams, prêtres conference in Alexandria, Egypt, to bring together et rabbins quant aux autres religions. actors from governments, universities, experts and international organizations from Muslim and The third axis concerns the transmission of values Western countries to discuss and identify best and intercultural and interreligious rapprochements. practices in history education and integrating in the In addition to the universal lesson of the Holocaust, school curricula courses on the values of tolerance, we have several projects to promote intercultural human rights and civil liberties. rapprochement and pass on the values of coexistence and tolerance to the younger generations. We are While we have made some progress with the political developing summer university courses that will bring support of France and other European governments together Muslim, Jewish and Christian postgraduate and also some Muslim nations, it is evident that the students from different countries for training on political and moral support of the United States conflict prevention and resolution and diversity would be essential in overcoming the obstacles that management. Educating the future generation stand on the way. of religious leaders is also an important priority. We have brought together a distinguished panel Madam Chairman, of religious figures from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian worlds to produce texts that would be I was born in Paris in 1943, survived the French used to educate young imams, priests and rabbis on and Nazi rounds up, hidden with my mother the other religions. in Brittany by Gentile shoemakers until the end of the war. My parents luckily escaped The fourth axis of our activities focuses on school deportation, but the majority of my family education. We are reaching out to the ministries who remained in Poland, today Ukraine was of education in Muslim countries where Jewish massacred by the Nazi death squads before communities once existed, to introduce in their even the death camps and gas chambers school curricula not only the history of the Holocaust were invented. I went to Ukraine and with in the context of World War 2, but also the history my own ears listened to the horrifying scenes of the Jews and other minorities who lived in those elderly witnesses were describing. I saw the lands for centuries. To prepare the ground, we have mass graves with thousands of skeletons started the production of a collection of books on aligned, the remains of hundreds of mothers the history of Jewish communities in twelve countries clutching their children in a last, futile of the Muslim world. The books are being written by attempt to protect them.
55 My career is marked by my faith in Young Aladdin was luckier; with an old little knowledge and education, the urge to turn lamp, the genius brought him back to light ideas into action. We know that the way and life. to reverse evil tendencies is hard and long. In the crematorium, little Jewish Aladdins It is in the light of knowledge against went into ashes and the only lights were the ignorance that the Aladdin Project trusts flames coming out of the high chimneys. and acts.
56 Statement by Samuel Pisar, Honorary Ambassador, Special UNESCO Envoy for Holocaust Education, before the Committee on Foreign Affairs - House of Representatives United States of America Washington, D.C., 13 April 2011
While world attention is riveted on the current upheavals in the Arab world, I would like to highlight that unique event, indeed that process, known as Project Aladdin that is pertinent to the quest for peaceful coexistence between so called “sworn enemies of history”, and could open a promising horizon for the future. It could also greatly benefit the Unites States and its allies.
To start, a few words about background and context. Today Iran’s provocative campaign to de-legitimize Israel and debunk the Holocaust knows no limits. For example, next month its international book fair, the largest in the Middle East, will display hundreds of anti-Semitic publications, including the 18th Persian edition of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the 19th edition of the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rise to power in Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, Representative Berman, 2005, Tehran has allocated millions of dollars for the Members of the Committee, export of such hate-mongering propaganda to every corner of the Muslim world. It is an immense honor to appear before your Committee. My statement relates to a remarkable With the Middle East in the throes of sweeping encounter of major Muslim, Jewish and Christian change, so full of risk and opportunity, and the battle leaders at the site of the Auschwitz extermination of ideas and ideologies raging across the region, a camp, in February 1, 2011 – an encounter with crucial question arises: how representative are such considerable potential for greater inter-faith and inter- poisonous viewpoints and policies of what is going on national solidarity. in other Muslim countries? I am in a position to report to you, first hand, on an eloquent and highly significant Allow me to say that I an American citizen by virtue of answer to that crucial question, which emerged from a Special Act of Congress, voted unanimously by this the Auschwitz encounter. House and the Senate, and signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. At the time I had the privilege of More than 150 political, religious and academic leaders serving the President, the Department of State and from Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Tunis, Iraq, Senegal, Committees of this House and the Senate, in the area Iran and other Muslim and non-Muslim nations, of foreign policy. Other and perhaps more pertinent came to Auschwitz that day, with me and the other credentials that qualify me to address you today witnesses, to commemorate the 66th anniversary of include the fact that I am a survivor of Auschwitz, the camp’s liberation, and to make it clear that Mr. Majdanek and Dachau. Ahmadinejad is not speaking in their name when he make perverse declarations about the Holocaust, Three distinguished personalities accompany me: particularly when he calls it a “myth.” The Honorable Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of Project Aladdin, his eminence, Dr Mustafa It fell on me, as one of the last living survivors of that Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, His Excellency, death camp, where Eichmann and Mengele eclipsed Jacques Andréani, a former French Ambassador to even Dante’s vision of Inferno, to mingle with and Washington. address that illustrious assembly, first in Paris, then in Auschwitz. Among them were heads and former
57 heads of state (notably President Abdoulaye Wade the unspeakable horrors I had endured of Senegal , Chairman of the 50-country Islamic personally, I did permit myself to evoke one Conference Organization), Grand Muftis, Cardinals, nightmarish memory that haunts me even Chief Rabbis, the Director General of UNESCO, the today. Hallucinating from hunger, anxiety Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, and grief, while the crematoria spewed Mayors of 15 major capitals, as well as eminent fire and smoke, I saw endless lines of men, representatives of governments and of civil society. women and children, brought there by cattle trains from all corners of Europe – often Naturally, I thanked them, in the name of the martyrs 10,000 per day – being herded into the gas and the survivors, for their historic pilgrimage to what chambers. And I heard them murmur their is the world’s largest cemetery – a cemetery without last “Shema”, the ultimate prayer of our graves or tombstones -- that accounts for one and common Abrahamic faiths: “The Lord, our a half million innocent souls. I also welcomed, with God, the Lord is one.” gratitude and great expectations the noble Project Aladdin – a sobering call of conscience and conviction After the steel doors were shut, they had only three to raise public awareness in their countries of the minutes to live. Yet they found enough strength to ravages and lessons of the Holocaust, as well as and dig their fingernails into the walls and scratch in the to oppose all new forms of prejudice, persecution or words: « Never Forget! » Those words, and their terror, wherever they occur. myriad echoes that still reverberate in time and space, imposed on all of us a sacred obligation to The emotion became palpable when I laid out my remember and to be ever vigilant. The Auschwitz awesome testimony on that cursed chapter of history number engraved on my arm reminds me of it every through the prism of a direct, living witness, starting day. And on that singular occasion I felt it was my with the fact that among the six million European duty to remind the royal highnesses, excellences and Jews annihilated by the Nazis, as much as a quarter, eminences around me, indeed, everyone who was including my entire family and all 500 children of my willing listen, especially the young, lest today’s rising school, perished in the gas chambers of Birkenau deluge of mayhem, cruelty and fear devastate their (Auschwitz II), whose ruins we had just visited with universe, as it once devastated mine. tears in our eyes. In Paris where we all assembled, inside the camp I apologize, Madam Chairman, for such references to and in the chartered plane that flew us there and my own role, to my statements and to my impressions, back, I had ample opportunity to rub shoulders with but I am anxious to convey to the Committee many of the dignitaries. North Africans engaged me insights that may help it appreciate and draw relevant in nostalgic conversations about the Golden Age of conclusions from the inter-reaction with, and among Arab-Jewish coexistence on the Iberian peninsula in disparate, long-estranged groups, at the venue that is medieval times. Turks reminded me that the Ottoman the absolute symbol of evil on earth. Empire had opened its arms to the Jews exiled in the 15th century, along with the Arabs, from Catholic The event was a rare moment of inter-faith Spain, and assured me that this hospitality has survives solidarity that catalyzed a constructive until now. Many of my interlocutors were from the ecumenical dialogue transcending all political, world of moderate Islam. But even those from more racial and religious strife. Together on those radical countries seemed authentically attached to blood-soaked killing grounds, united by the values of freedom, dignity and human rights, as the same pain, with the mind-boggling evidence sudden Arab reawakening later confirmed. staring us in the face, all of us meditated not only on the intolerance, hatred and violence At the concluding plenary session, speaking after of the past, but also on the extremism that Germany’s former Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, is inflaming our fratricidal and suicidal world and the present Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, again. For we were at the epicenter of the I described the instant of my liberation in the spring greatest catastrophe ever perpetrated by of 1945, when the victorious allied armies converged man against man. on the Third Reich from East and West. Miraculously, I managed to escape from Dachau in a hail of bullets, As an enslaved, skeletal 15-year old, I and ran toward an advancing column of American was both a victim and an observer of that GI's with a roar of “God Bless America”. catastrophe. While I did not dwell on
58 But I also touched on the global carnage of today, and But in Auschwitz everyone understood that on my fear that we have learned nothing from the what we were commemorating was not a barbarism of the Auschwitz era; that man remains ”myth”. It was a gruesome unprecedented capable of the worst as of the best, of hatred as of evil conceived and implemented by love, of madness as of genius; that unless we heed bloodthirsty tyrants and dictators on an the warnings of our horror-filled past, uphold the unimaginable scale. Cynical allegations that sanctity and dignity of human life and espouse the that the atrocious crimes against humanity core universal values we share in common, the new we had endured in body and soul never forces of darkness will ruin our dreams of a better happened are not only unbearably painful to future. My implicit allusion to Al Qaeda and other hear. They invite repetitions of such crimes sources of extremism and fanaticism was clear, yet against us, against others, even against the they applauded. kin of those who make such allegations. This type of mentality is unworthy of those In the wake of Hitler’s “Final Solution” against the who cherish the lofty commandments of Jews, and the mass exterminations of Cambodians, our great faiths, and who worship the same Bosnians, Rwandans, Darfuris and others, humanity monotheistic God. has failed to face up to the risk of new man-made calamities, with plagues of toxic gas, swarms of The high point of the entire event came when I and rockets and radioactive nuclear mushroom clouds. If the small group of my fellow-survivors stood, in such reflections seemed relevant to me, I told them, the bitter cold and icy wind of Auschwitz, reciting it was because amid the ashes of Auschwitz we “Kaddish” – the timeless mourners’ prayer for our can discern the specter of doomsday. Indeed, from loved ones -- in the presence of the Chief Rabbi of where, if not from that God-forsaken place can come Israel, the Archbishop of Paris, the Grand Mufti of the warning that new Holocausts, against the same or Bosnia and so many others from 40 countries and 5 other victims, are possible? Where if not there can continents. I was profoundly moved by the Koranic we find the inspiration and courage to deal with the prayer and concluding words of the Grand Mufti: “I challenges that lie ahead, and with which we cannot am here to thank Project Aladdin for inviting us to cope because we are so hopelessly divided? see the evil that humans can do to humans”, he said, “and to say to those who deny the Holocaust of If the innocents who had perished in Auschwitz Auschwitz and the genocide of Srebrenica, that they could make themselves heard, they would surely are committing genocides themselves.” clamor before these exceptional visitors: “Never again devastating wars between ‘sworn blood Aladdin is the hero from the story of the “Arabian enemies’; never again Crusades or Jihads, Stalingrads Nights” who finds an old lamp, which when rubbed, or Hiroshimas, racist genocides, ethnic cleansings or summons a genie that obeys the will of its owner. religious assassinations. Some of them seemed to be My Homeric duel with a cruel fate has taught me shaking their heads in approval. that miracles are not in short supply, when there is a will to seize them. The miracle of February 1, 2011, There was never any controversy, never an aggressive must be seized and built upon, Madame Chairman, not, not even over the Israeli-Palestinian issue, even if and America should also be in the forefront of this everyone felt that a solution was too long in coming. peaceful and noble project.
I concluded with the obvious: that we, the May the magic lamp of Project Aladdin light the last living survivors of the Holocaust are way to a safer and better future for all the children now disappearing one by one. After us of Abraham, and all others yearning for freedom, history will speak about with the impersonal democracy and peace. voice of scholars and novelists; at worst, in the malevolent register of falsifiers and demagogues. This process had already begun, and its most incendiary practitioners, who are plotting to wipe us out, promote it in shameless disregard of manifest truth.
59 Statement by Dr Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, before the Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives United States of America Washington, D.C., 13 April 2011
As a Bosnian Muslim, I feel that I belong to the Aladdin Project both historically and presently. Regarding history, Stanford J. Shaw explains it all when he said, “Neither the people of the Republic of Turkey nor those of Europe and America fully realize the extent to which Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire which preceded it, over the centuries served as major places of refuge for people suffering from persecution, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, from the fourteenth century to the present. In many ways the Turks historically fulfilled the role subsequently taken up by the United States of America beginning in the late nineteenth century”.
A common moral principle of Abrahamic tradition To this overall historical testimony of my cultural that says, “You ought to do for others what you would background I should proudly add a unique contribution like the others do for you,” should be translated into of my great, great grandfathers, who welcomed the the moral imperative of our age: “You ought to fight Jews in 15th century to Sarajevo to save them from for the human rights of others as you would like the the Spanish Inquisition together with their unique others fight for your human rights.” book of Haggadah, which is famous today as the Sarajevo Haggadah. This unique piece of Jewish soul This is exactly why, as a Muslim theologian, I decided and art in Sarajevo is the best proof of the honesty to join the Aladdin Project from the very beginning, of my testimony here, as I say that those who deny because I feel it is my moral duty to fight for the Holocaust and genocide are capable of doing the truth of the Holocaust - that some try to it again. It is therefore our duty and responsibility deny - as an evidence of an unprecedented to do whatever is necessary to stop the denial and crime against humanity. trivialization of the Holocaust and to reassure the survivors of these crimes that they are not alone Yes, I have to confess that the fact of the Holocaust, and that the cry “never again” must be fully applied the trauma of Holocaust survivors and the denial everywhere. of the Holocaust were not my particular concern, until what happened to my Bosnian people and until It is therefore appropriate to say that if we really I realized that the cry of “never again” has failed. want to prevent future genocides we must do Then, and only then, did I began to read about the much more than sympathize with the victims. We Holocaust, and only then did I grasp what it meant to have to comprehend the psychological depth of the be a victim of genocide and how painful it must be for perpetrators of genocide and the indifference of the survivors of genocide to hear the denial of their genocide observers. undeniable truths. We have to learn what makes some persons, who We human beings may afford some injustice because were once normal, hate other persons and people we know that absolute justice is only in God, but we to the extent that they want to systematically and cannot by any means accept untruth, because our soul methodically eliminate them all! But we also need rejects it with all the power of that divine spirit which to learn about those who support genocide against is in each and every one of us, as God made us to innocent people or observe it from the distance. We become human beings with a strong sense of truth need to learn more about them too. and justice as the two most important principles of our humanness, freedom and dignity.
60 We need to learn about the Holocaust not If we are offered hatred, save us with Jesus’ love! only as historical facts, but also as a means If we are confronted with violent people, strengthen of teaching our children about the dangers us with Mohammed’s patience and wisdom to avoid of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia violence! and other examples of human intolerance. Our Lord, we ask you to unite our hearts in humanity! We must teach younger generations to Our Lord, we ask you to unite our will towards peace appreciate the values of democracy and and security! human rights and encourage them to reject Our Lord, do not let success deceive us hatred, intolerance and ethnic conflicts so Nor failure takes us to despair! that “never again” becomes really true. Always remind us that failure is a temptation that precedes success! In a relatively short span of time since its creation, Our Lord, teach us that tolerance is the highest the Aladdin Project has won the support of many degree of power and that the desire for revenge is political, intellectual and religious figures from the the first sign of weakness! Muslim world and the West. It has launched a variety Our Lord, if you deprive us of our property, give us of educational and cultural projects whose ultimate hope! aim is to bring peoples, cultures and religions together, If you take from us the blessing of health, provide us so that we can all live in peace and friendship. with the blessing of faith! Our Lord, if we sin against people, give us the strength Our Lord, if we sin, give us the strength of Adam’s of apology! repentance! And if people sin against us, give us the strength of If disaster befalls us, teach us how to build Noah’s Ark! forgiveness! If despair darkens us, enlighten us with Abraham’s Our Lord, may grief become hope! honest faith! If we are threatened by a tyrant, empower us with Moses’ courage!
61 Answers to the Survey on the Books of the Aladdin Library
• How did you hear about the Online Library began to address the issue in his public speeches. of Aladdin? Seven readers wrote that they had encountered the word “Holocaust” in Arabic articles that denied the 54% of Internet users were directed to the site by Holocaust ever happened or spoke of the “Palestinian Google and other search engines when searching Holocaust.” One reader in Lebanon said he heard of for keywords (overwhelmingly in Arabic the Holocaust for the first time when the Hezbollah or Persian), such as “Anne Frank,” “Jewish launched a public campaign to ban Anne Frank’s Diary genocide” “Hitler” or “Nazism” or generic in the country. search terms such as “download books” or “Internet library”. 19% found the site via the site’s Facebook • What was your reaction to reading these page, Wikipedia and other sites and blogs, 15% were books? Have you talked about it to your directed to the online library via the main friends and acquaintances? Web site of the Aladdin Project and 11% visited the website after receiving the address from a friend Among the 422 users who responded to this or acquaintance. question, a clear majority (68%) said that the book(s) helped them to better understand the Holocaust • Which book (or books) did you choose to or have changed their perception of these events. download and read? Why? The answers range from intellectual praise for some of these books to very personal accounts. Most of the time, readers do not mention the names “So much frustration, so much despair, so much of all the books they have downloaded, but the book sorrow, I feel like Anne Frank speaks for me,” wrote most often mentioned is the Diary of Anne Frank, Anissa Sidi Bel Abbes from Algeria. “You could not followed by If This Is a Man by Primo Levi. There is have picked a better book to give a sincere and however a difference between Arab and Iranian unvarnished account of what happened at Auschwitz. readers for the third most popular book. Arab I recommend it to everyone in my university, where readers chose Sonderkommando by Shlomo Venezia people said that the Jews invented the Holocaust”, while Persian readers chose Hitler and the Jews by was the comment of Ahrar-Misr, a reader from Cairo, Philippe Burrin. Among the most recent additions to on Sonderkommando, by Shlomo Venezia. Omar, a the library, Anne Grynberg’s book came first among Sudanese student of theology in Saudi Arabia, Arabic readers and Shoah by Claude Lanzmann was wrote: “Before reading this book [Shlomo most frequently mentioned by Iranian users. Venezia, Sonderkommando], I had not read anything about it and I just thought it was a Only 148 readers (34%) responded to the question: Zionist invention. The horrible crimes that Why did you decide to download books? In this group, are described in this book are rejected by the reasons were diverse: all divine religions and can only be described as being pure evil”. A reader in Iran stated that • Had you ever heard of the Holocaust before he and a group of his college friends had read the reading a book from the Aladdin Library? Diary of Anne Frank and that their private book club was now reading Sonderkommando. 21% of those Almost all visitors (431, so 86%) answered this who answered the questions gave mixed responses. question by saying that they had heard of the “I enjoyed reading the book by Primo Levi, but I Holocaust. While the overwhelming majority gave a stopped reading Anne Frank mid-way because I found simple “yes” or “no” answer, 24 visitors provided us it repetitive and uninteresting,” wrote Behrang, an with more elaborate answers. In this group, ten said immigrant Afghani from Cologne. 9% of the readers that the first time they had heard the word Holocaust said that the books were used to “advance the Jewish/ was when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Zionist project.”
62 Among those who responded to the question of Yasamin from Newcastle, England: “Most people in the whether they had talked to someone else about the West have a distorted view of Islam, because all they see books, 58% gave a positive response, but the majority from ‘Islam’ are extremists and terrorists. This is why your noted that they only discussed these issues with library should include the translation of books by Muslim members of their family or trusted friends. thinkers like Abdulkarim Soroush and Khalid Abdelkarim.”
• Would you like more information about this Some readers have opted for known Arabic or or other topics? If yes, on what themes? Persian novels – e.g. The Elephants by Egyptian author Fathi Ghanem, The Cycles of the East by Syrian author The broad “yes” we received can be detailed: 52% said Nabil Suleiman or The Night of Ten Years by Tunisian they wanted to know more about the Holocaust. A author Muhammad Salih al-Jabri – with the idea larger number (74%) said they wanted to read novels that these books offer in-depth insights into Arab or books about different cultures and civilizations, societies. It was also suggested to translate into French geography, law, technology and modern books to and English books written by members of religious study languages. Other proposed themes: the Israeli- minorities in the Muslim world. Palestinian conflict, the history of Jews and Muslims, genocide and mass violence. 8% said they would • Do you have any other comments or like to see books about the “Nakba”, the Palestinian recommendations? exodus of 1948, added to the library. 334 readers have responded to this question. A lot • Are there other books that you would like of users commented on technical issues, including a to see translated into Arabic or Persian? If large number of users complaining that in countries yes, which ones? with slow Internet, downloading some books takes time and sometimes becomes impossible. In addition, 67 users answered this question without any 23% of users thought that the library was too limited consensus emerging. Some of the responses indicated and should be extended to other subjects. 9% have a category of books rather than specific titles: among asked why Hebrew is not included in the languages these suggestions, books on democracy and civil of the Aladdin Library if, as it claims, its objective is to society, and, a blatant reflection of the poverty of promote “mutual understanding”, especially among resources in some of these countries, some readers Jews and Muslims. 7% said they had found the site by wanted books on women’s rights, biographies of chance and suggested that more be done to publicize famous people, children’s books, comic books, books the existence of these books. A reader suggested that of poetry. Among the specific titles proposed for the library open up to original writers from different translation: What Went Wrong by Bernard Lewis, countries by publishing their books online. There have Refuge and A Trumpet in the Wadi by Sami Michael, also been suggestions to add multimedia features to Strand of a Thousand Pearls by Dorit Rabinyan and The the library and it was often deplored that there was Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper. no print version of the books.
• Are there any books in your country that you would like to see translated into English or French? If yes, which ones?
144 readers have responded positively. Here, too, the proposed books cover a wide range of topics. A significant number (24%) suggested that the books written by contemporary Islamic thinkers be translated into English and French. A typical comment is that of
63 64 PHOTO CREDITS
P.10: Photo 1: Mustafa Ceric, Auschwitz, 1 February 2011 ©Erez Lichtfeld. Photo 2: Aly El-Samman and André Azoulay, press conference at Paris City Hall, 31 January 2011 ©Erez Lichtfeld.
P. 11: Photo 1: Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Gerhard Schröder, Asha-Rose Migiro, Samuel Pisar, Auschwitz, 1 February 2011 ©Erez Lichtfeld. Photo 2: Anis Al-Qaq and François Zimeray , Auschwitz, 1 February 2011 ©Erez Lichtfeld ; Photo 3: Bakhtiar Amin, Ndioro Ndiaye, Nicéphore Soglu, press conference at Paris City Hall, 31 January 2011 ©Erez Lichtfeld.
P.12: Tarik Gunersel, Serge Klarsfeld, Claude Lanzmann, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Beate Klarsfeld, Hamid Ongha, Frankfurt International Book Fair, 13 October 2011 ©Aladdin Project.
P.15: Claude Lanzmann, launching conference of Shoah in Persian at UNESCO, 7 March 2011©Erez Lichtfeld.
P.16: Frédéric Mitterrand, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Claude Lanzmann, Irina Bokova, Samuel Pisar, launching conference of Shoah in Persian at UNESCO, 7 March 2011©Erez Lichtfeld.
P.17: Holocaust memorial ceremony at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, 26 January 1012 ©Aladdin Project
P.19: Fatiha Benatsou, Ivan Levai, André Azoulay, Elie Chouraqui, Anouk Aimée, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, premiere of Les Hommes libres in Paris, 13 September 2011 ©Erez Lichtfeld.
P. 21: Chief Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat and the Patriarch Bartholomew, Istanbul, 22 April 2012 ©Aladdin Project.
P. 22: Chief Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat; Dr Rahmi Yaran, former Grand Mufti of Istanbul; Ishak Haleva, Chief Rabbi of Turkey; Mustafa Cagrici, Grand Mufti of Istanbul, 22 April 2012 ©Aladdin Project.
P. 23: Howard L. Berman, Democrat Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 13 April 2011 ©HFAC.
P. 24: Rashid Benmokhtar, President of Morocco’s National Observatory on Human Development, francophone Parlia- ment of Brussels, 8 December 2011 ©Hubert Benkoski.
P. 35: Abdoulaye Wade, Simone Veil and Jacques Chirac during the signing of the Call to Conscience, UNESCO Head- quarters, 27 March 2009 ©Aladdin Project.
P. 48: Frédéric Mitterrand, Philippe Dessaint, Claude Lanzmann, Irina Bokova and Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, launching conference of Shoah in Persian at UNESCO, 7 March 2011©Erez Lichtfeld.
P.51: Jacques Andréani ©Aladdin Project.
P.57: Samuel Pisar ©Erez Lichtfeld.
P.60: Mustafa Ceric ©Erez Lichtfeld.
65 Editorial Director:
Diana Tey
Graphic design:
Kalawave “We need to learn about the Holocaust not only as historical facts, but also as a means of teaching our children about the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other examples of human intolerance. We must teach younger generations to appreciate the values of democracy and human rights and encourage them to reject hatred, intolerance and ethnic conflicts so that ‘never again’ becomes really true.”
Dr Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia
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