No Child is born a Racist and No Child should become one. by UN News / Council of Europe 11:51am 28th Jan, 2007   29 January 2007    The United Nations today marked the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust with an urgent appeal that the remembrance of the millions of Jews and others murdered by the Nazis serve to prevent new massacres, a rebuff for those who deny that the tragedy ever occurred, and moving testimony from survivors.    “The Holocaust was a unique and undeniable tragedy,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a video message played to a special memorial ceremony in the General Assembly Hall on the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews, 500,000 Roma and Sinti and other minorities, disabled and homosexuals were killed.    “Decades later, the systematic murder of millions of Jews and others retains its power to shock. The ability of the Nazis to command a following, despite their utter depravity, still strikes fear. And above all, the pain remains: for aging survivors, and for all of us as a human family that witnessed a descent into barbarism.    He emphasized the importance of remembrance in tribute to those who perished and in global efforts to stem the tide of human cruelty. “It keeps us vigilant for new outbreaks of anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance. And it is an essential response to those misguided individuals who claim that the Holocaust never happened, or has been exaggerated,” Mr. Ban declared.    He said the presence at today’s ceremony of disabled persons and the Roma and Sinti community showed that, even now, the act of bearing witness can offer new perspectives, while the participation of young people highlighted the value of going beyond remembrance to ensure that new generations know this history.    Mr. Ban noted that while the General Assembly was marking the event in New York he himself was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at an African Union (AU) summit where one of the main items is ending the violence in Sudan’s wart torn Darfur, where over 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced by the conflict between the Sudanese Government, allied militias and rebels.    General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Al Khalifa called for paying tribute to all victims – the needless deaths of millions of Jews and the suffering endured by the many minority groups that were also victims, some of whom were present in the Hall.    “Today’s commemoration is an important reminder of the universal lessons of the Holocaust, a unique evil which cannot simply be consigned to the past and forgotten. The Holocaust was a historical event, which cannot be denied. Its consequences still reverberate in the present.” she told the ceremony.    “It is a tragedy that the international community has not been able to stop new horrors in the years since the Holocaust. This makes it all the more important that we remember the lessons of the past so that we do not make the same mistakes in the future. We must remain vigilant. The forces of hatred, bigotry and racism are still at work in the world.”    Thomas Schindlmayr, who works on disability issues for the UN but was speaking in his personal capacity, discussed the persecution of people with disabilities under Nazi Germany. “They were stripped of any legal protection and denied control over their own lives and bodies,” he said, recalling the forced sterilization of persons with disabilities and other abuses. While much had been learned since then, the notion that persons with disabilities are somehow inferior is still prevalent, he warned.    The keynote speaker, Simone Veil, a member of the Constitutional Council of France and President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, said that by creating this annual observance, the UN had remained faithful to its founding principles.    “For those of us who were deported, not a day goes by that we do not think of the Shoah,” said Ms. Veil, who was a prisoner in Auschwitz, and was at Bergen-Belsen when that camp was liberated by the British Army. “What obsesses us the most is the memory of those from whom we were brutally separated when we arrived at the camps, and who we later learned were sent straight to the gas chambers,” she added, recalling how her own father and brother were taken away, never to be seen again.    “We thought we had no more tears but we still wept, and I still weep today when I think of” those who were marched directly to the gas chambers, she said. “And I think of it every day, many times.”    She said that while those who survived hoped and pledged “Never again,” their warnings were in vain. “After the massacres in Cambodia, it is Africa that is paying the highest price in genocidal terms,” she said, referring in particular to the events in Darfur, Sudan, and calling for UN action in response.    Under Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor, who moderated the event, said it had two key purposes: “Of course, we meet to mourn that part of our human family that is missing – to remember the individuals and tell each other their stories. But we also meet to unearth the lessons we can draw from their lives and their fates.”    He said the first among those lessons “is that, just as human beings have an almost infinite power to destroy, they also possess an enormous capacity to learn, to grow and to create.”    At a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, representatives of Roma and Sinti, who with 12 million members make up Europe’s largest minority, said they are subject to discrimination, social disadvantage and frequently also to open violence.    “Especially in the countries of Eastern Europe, there are millions of members of our minority who live in ghetto-like housing, often cut off from any infrastructure,” Romani Rose Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma said. “The infant mortality is extremely high, the degrading conditions that prevail there call the former apartheid system in South Africa to mind.    “Excluded from education, marginalized in the labour market, people are deprived of any opportunity of participating in the development of society and of leading a self-determined life. Quite frequently Roma and Sinti are victims of pogroms, racially motivated murder and other of acts of violence. Often such attacks emanate from the State security forces themselves. Only rarely can the perpetrators expect consistent prosecution.”    Ceremonies were held in other UN outposts around the world. “The sheer dimensions of the organized murder of Jews and others, the very scale of the systematic attempt at destroying an entire people, make the Holocaust a unique calamity that cannot – and should not – be forgotten, let alone denied,” the Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva told a ceremony at the Palais des Nations.    “Sadly, other genocides and atrocities have followed the Holocaust, and the world has been unable, or unwilling, to prevent or stop them,” said Sergei Ordzhonikidze. “If we are to spare future generations from similar tragedies, we must carry forward the lessons of the Holocaust. We must not allow any of lessons of the Holocaust and of the Second World War to be distorted.”    On Friday the General Assembly condemned without reservation any denial of the Holocaust, with only Iran publicly disassociating itself from the consensus resolution.    26/1/2007    Joint statement on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Secretary General and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.    “No child is born a racist, and it is the task of all of us to make sure that no child becomes one. The fight against racism and xenophobia must not be limited to one day a year. We have the responsibility to fight hate and prejudice all the time and everywhere, in schools, in the workplace and in the street.    Political leaders have a particular responsibility in making Europe free from racism in all its forms, from anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and prejudice against Roma. The Council of Europe is the guardian of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the fight against all form of racism is one of our key priorities.    The European Youth Campaign for Diversity, Human Rights and Participation is building on the message of the 1995 “All Different, All Equal” Campaign, but with a broader agenda: it tackles discrimination based not only on ethnic origin or the colour of someone’s skin, but also on the basis of religion, disability or sexual orientation.    Meeting in Strasbourg in 2002, the European Ministers of Education decided to establish a “Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and for the prevention of crimes against humanity”. Since then this day has been celebrated on 27 January every year, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. The initiative has been taken up by the United Nations which has declared it an international day of remembrance.”    27/1/2007    Holocaust Day marked in Europe. (BBC News)    Events have been taking place to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in memory of the six million Jews and other victims of the Nazi death camps.    Most of the commemorations take place on 27 January - the date on which the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Soviets in 1945. Victims of more recent atrocities are also being remembered.    On the eve of the memorial, the UN General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution condemning Holocaust denial. The resolution, proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, says "ignoring the historical fact of these terrible events increases the risk they will be repeated". The resolution does not mention any particular country, but diplomats said it was aimed at Iran, which has cast doubt on the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War ll.    Two years ago, the UN designated 27 January as the date for international commemorations. Events this year included a ceremony at the former concentration camp of Sachsenhausen in Germany. There was also a wreath-laying ceremony on Berlin"s Putlitz Bridge, where there is a plaque commemorating the deportation of the city"s Jewish community during the Nazi regime. The bridge has been targeted in the past by far-right groups.    At Saturday"s ceremony, the head of the Green Party, Claudia Roth, said: "We all have a responsibility to combat anti-Semitic and far-right attitudes." It was a view echoed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who urged "all courageous democrats" to fight against the far-right NPD party, which is represented in regional parliaments.    On Saturday evening, hundreds of people attended a concert at Berlin Cathedral. The proceeds will go to a group that provides counselling and support for survivors of the Holocaust living in Israel.    Events have been organised in the UK with the message "The Dignity of Difference" and with the aim of educating people about the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of discrimination.    The victims of other atrocities of the 20th Century, including in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo, are also being honoured.    Some six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust - the attempt by Nazi Germany to exterminate Europe"s Jewish population during World War ll. The Nazis also targeted other groups who were seen by them as racially inferior or degenerate, including Slavs, Roma, homosexuals and disabled people. It is estimated that about 1.5m people were killed at Auschwitz, the biggest of the concentration camps.    Jan. 27, 2007    Never Forget (Deutsche Welle)    Meanwhile in Brussels, the president of the European parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, said, "We must never forget this abominable and tremendously painful side of this continent"s history. "The crimes committed by the Nazis must be remembered by future generations as a warning against a genocide which should never be repeated," he said. Pöttering, the newly-elected parliamentary president, added: "On this day, we remember the millions of victims of the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews as well as Roma, Poles, Russians and people of other nationalities.    "The Holocaust Memorial Day is a day on which we most sharply condemn intolerance and animosity towards other religions and races and every form of anti-Semitism," he said. The highest measure of political conduct for the European Union is the respect of every person"s dignity and human rights throughout the world, Pöttering added.
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