Vol. 33-No.3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2007-Tevet/Shevat 5767 UN MARKS HOLOCAUST DAY AS CONSTANT REMINDER TO PREVENT FUTURE GENOCIDES n January 29, the United Nations of human cruelty. were sent straight to the gas chambers,” Omarked the annual International He said the she added, recalling how her own father Day of Commemoration in memory of the presence at and brother were taken away, never to be victims of the Holocaust with an urgent today’s ceremo- seen again. appeal that the remembrance of the mil- ny of disabled “We thought we had no more tears but lions of Jews and others murdered by the persons and the we still wept, and I still weep today when I Nazis serve to prevent new massacres, a Roma and Sinti think of” those who were marched directly rebuff for those who deny that the tragedy community to the gas chambers, she said. “And I ever occurred, and moving testimony from showed that, think of it every day, many times.” survivors. even now, the She said that, while those who survived “The Holocaust was a unique and unde- act of bearing hoped and pledged “Never again,” their niable tragedy,” Secretary-General Ban witness can offer warnings were in vain. “After the mas- Ki-moon said in a video message played new perspec- sacres in Cambodia, it is Africa that is pay- to a special memorial ceremony in the tives, while the ing the highest price in genocidal terms,” General Assembly Hall on the Holocaust participation of she said, referring in particular to the in which 6 million Jews, 500,000 Roma young people events in Darfur, Sudan, and calling for and Sinti and other minorities, disabled highlighted the UN action in response. and homosexuals were killed. value of going nder-Secretary-General Shashi “Decades later, the systematic murder beyond remem- UTharoor, who moderated the event, of millions of Jews and others retains its brance to ensure More than 500 people gathered at the UN headquarters in New York to mark said it had two key purposes: “Of course, power to shock. The ability of the Nazis to that new genera- the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of we meet to mourn that part of our human command a following, despite their utter tions know this the Holocaust. family that is missing – to remember the depravity, still strikes fear. And above all, history. since the Holocaust. This makes it all the individuals and tell each other their sto- the pain remains: for aging survivors, and eneral Assembly President Sheikha more important that we remember the les- ries. But we also meet to unearth the les- for all of us as a human family that wit- GHaya Al Khalifa called for paying sons of the past so that we do not make sons we can draw from their lives and nessed a descent into barbarism. tribute to all victims – the needless deaths the same mistakes in the future. We must their fates.” He emphasized the importance of of millions of Jews and the suffering remain vigilant. The forces of hatred, big- He said the first among those lessons remembrance in tribute to those who per- endured by the many minority groups that otry and racism are still at work in the “is that, just as human beings have an ished and in global efforts to stem the tide were also victims, some of whom were world.” almost infinite power to destroy, they also present in the Hall. Thomas Schindlmayr, who works on dis- possess an enormous capacity to learn, to “Today’s commem- ability issues for the UN but was speaking grow and to create.” oration is an impor- in his personal capacity, discussed the Ceremonies were held in other UN out- tant reminder of the persecution of people with disabilities posts around the world. “The sheer universal lessons of under Nazi Germany. “They were stripped dimensions of the organized murder of the Holocaust, a of any legal protection unique evil which and denied control cannot simply be over their own lives consigned to the and bodies,” he said, past and forgotten. recalling the forced The Holocaust was a sterilization of persons historical event, with disabilities and which cannot be other abuses. While denied. Its conse- much had been quences still rever- learned since then, berate in the pres- the notion that per- ent.” she told the sons with disabilities ceremony. are somehow inferior “It is a tragedy that is still prevalent, he Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American and International Societies for the international com- warned. Yad Vashem and Simone Veil, keynote speaker at the annual International munity has not been he keynote speak- Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust at the able to stop new hor- Ter, Simone Veil, a UN , President of the Foundation Pour la Mémoire de la Shoah. rors in the years member of the Constitutional Council of Eli Zborowski, Chairman American and International Societies for Yad France and President of Vashem and Under-Secretary-General of the UN Shashi Tharoor. IN THIS ISSUE the Foundation Pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, said that by creat- Jews and others, the very scale of the Updated Encyclopedia Judaica hits shelves...............................................................3 ing this annual observance, the UN had systematic attempt at destroying an entire Saving the Jews. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust......................................4 remained faithful to its founding principles. people, make the Holocaust a unique When remembrance fails...............................................................................................5 “For those of us who were deported, not calamity that cannot – and should not – be A Shoah survivor writes about his miracles................................................................6 a day goes by that we do not think of the forgotten, let alone denied,” the Director- Their private Holocaust..................................................................................................7 Shoah,” said Ms. Veil, who was a prisoner General of the UN Office in Geneva told a Young Leadership Associates tenth anniversary.....................................................8-9 in Auschwitz, and was at Bergen-Belsen ceremony at the Palais des Nations. Survivors seek more Holocaust funds.......................................................................10 when that camp was liberated by the Earlier, the General Assembly con- “Secondary Holocaust effect”.....................................................................................11 British Army. “What obsesses us the most demned without reservation any denial of Report from the American Society for Yad Vashem.................................................12 is the memory of those from whom we the Holocaust, with only Iran publicly dis- Catholic clergy rescued Italian Jews..........................................................................13 were brutally separated when we arrived associating itself from the consensus res- Poland must deal with its past....................................................................................14 at the camps, and who we later learned olution. Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE January/February 2007 - Tevet/Shevat 5767 YAD VASHEM LAUNCHES WEB SITE IN FARSI WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT: TO COMBAT HOLOCAUST DENIAL HOLOCAUST DAY OF COMMEMORATION srael’s Holocaust memorial, Yad sary of the Auschwitz death camp’s liber- resident Bush issued a statement lives to try and save the Nazis’ intended IVashem, has launched a version of its ation by the advancing Soviet army, and Ppaying tribute to the victims and victims. Web site in Farsi to educate Israel’s most came a day after the U.N. General survivors of the Holocaust on the occa- Remembering the victims, heroes, bitter enemy, Iran, about the Nazi slaugh- Assembly adopted a resolution condemn- sion of the United Nations designated and lessons of the Holocaust is particu- ter of 6 million Jews. ing the denial of the Holocaust. Only Iran International Day of Commemoration. larly important today, as Holocaust The site was unveiled last week of rejected the resolution. “On the second International Day of denial continues, urged on by the January to coincide with the U.N.’s annu- he U.N. resolution did not single out Commemoration, we remember and Iranian regime, which perversely seeks al Holocaust remembrance day. Tany country, but Israel and the mourn the victims of the Holocaust. to call into question the historical fact of “Every year, nearly 20,000 people from United States both suggested that Iran Sixty-two years after the liberation of the Nazis’ campaign of mass murder. Auschwitz, we must continue to edu- We must continue to condemn the Muslim countries, including Iran, visit the should take note. cate ourselves about the lessons of the resurgence of anti-Semitism, that same Yad Vashem Web site,” said Avner Yad Vashem’s Farsi site includes 20 Holocaust, and honor those whose lives virulent intolerance that led to the Shalev, Yad Vashem’s chairman. “We historical chapters, including dozens of were taken as a result of a racist ideol- Holocaust, and we must combat bigotry believe that making credible, comprehen- photos, arranged chronologically, from ogy that embraced a national policy of and hatred in all their forms, in America sive information about the Holocaust the rise of the Nazis to power until the violent hatred and bigotry. It is also our and abroad. available to Persian speakers can con- postwar trials of Nazi leaders. The site responsibility to honor the survivors and May God bless the memory of the tribute to the fight against Holocaust also includes a poem by Abramek those courageous souls who refused to victims of the Holocaust. And may we denial.” Koplowicz, a Jewish boy murdered in be bystanders, and instead risked their never forget.” January 27, marked the 62nd anniver- Auschwitz at age 14. LIFE FOR GERMAN JEWS ECHOES 1930S A COALITION OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS CALLED FOR A DELAY IN RESTITUTION DEADLINES ife for Jewish people in Germany elections in September. Far-right politi- Lhas become reminiscent of the cians now sit on three state governments coalition of Holocaust survivors Italian company Generali, that are due to 1930s, a community leader claimed in Germany.