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UNSpecial N° 691 • Janvier 2010

Photo : © Claude Maillard, OMS UNSpecial N° 691 — Janvier 2010
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LESSONS FROM HISTORY
TO OUR GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF THE 25th CENTURY
(REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST)

EVELINA RIOUKHINA, UNECE

The United Nations General Assembly designated 27 January as the annual international day to commemorate the victims of the Nazi era. This date marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, on 27 January 1945, exactly 65 years ago. For the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on 27 January 2010 the UN family will organize events and meetings in its duty stations all over the world. The tragedy that the Nazis left the world is indescribable. I quote from one of the statements made at the first special session of the General Assembly: “During the last war, the Jewish people, experienced exceptional sorrow and suffering...It is diffi cult to express them in dry statistics on the Jewish victims of the fascist aggressors. The Jews in territories where the Hitlerites held sway were subjected to almost complete physical annihilation...” (from the speech of the Soviet delegation, at the 77th plenary meeting, New York, 14 May 1947).

In the table below, I give this “dry statistics” to show the realities in figures. These “dry statistics” tell of the loss of millions (!) of human beings, confirming the above statement of annihilation. It is difficult to believe that such a tragedy could happen again. However, it was at that very time that some politicians insisted on the importance of including the phrase “only the complete eradication of the roots of fascist and the democratization of the countries of Western Europe can give the Jewish masses normal existence in any country” (Documents on Israeli-Soviet Relations, MFAs archives (1941-1953), vol. 1, docs.73,77,78). Unfortunately, the tragedy has not disappeared. Over six decades after 6 million Jews – nearly a third of the total victims – and countless other minorities were butchered by the Nazis, it is as vitally important as ever to learn from the tragedy, so as to prevent further atrocities. As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned at the last’s year International Day of Commemoration ceremony, “We must continue to examine why the world failed to prevent the Holocaust and other atrocities since. That way, we will be better armed to defeat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance”.

There are events when one nation tries to annihilate another nation. These events are taking place today, and they have names – genocide and racial hatred. These two ugly phenomena of the present are close to Holocaust, to what was happening to the Jews during the Second World War. Not only are these events taking place, but what is more dangerous is that events of the past are being denied. As we know, last year the media was full of articles denying the gas chambers. Such denial is very dangerous, as it risks repeating the tragedy. It is very difficult to visit the concentration camp sites. I am sure that many of my colleagues have visited them. I have not yet found courage to do so, although my daughter has asked me to. I think these visits might be very important for our children, for our future generations to prevent this from happening again.

In almost all countries affected by the Second World War there are Holocaust museums, and I visited some of them. I will briefly share the experience of my visit to Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, which profoundly marked me. I am also very proud that the United Nations took active role in its inauguration in 2005. The Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum is the largest Holocaust museum in the world. It is carved into the Mount of Remembrance and is designed to reflect the story of the European Jewish community during the Holocaust. It consists of a long corridor connected to 10 exhibition halls; each is dedicated to a different chapter of the Holocaust. At the end of the Museum is the Hall of Names, a memorial to the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. There is a display featuring 600 photographs and fragments of the Pages of Testimony. It is diffi cult to describe what I felt looking into the faces and reading the fragments, written in different languages. I broke down in tears, it was so overwhelming.

Afterwards I visited Children Memorial, something I will never forget. This memorial should be visited by every person, old and young. If only when we and our children could see it and could really feel it, there might be hope that at least we would do our best to see that such things never happen again. I stood in the dark, underground, cavernous hall, lit by memorial candles that reflected infinitely, creating the impression of millions of stars shining in the firmament. I could hear the names of murdered children, their ages and countries of origin:

AGI LEBOVICS, born in 1936 UZGOROD, died in AUSCHWITZ 1944, 8 years old
MARCEL SUDWARTS, born 28/01/1936 ANTWERPEN, died AUSCHWITZ 1942, 6 years old
VIOLETTE LEVY, born in MARSEILLE, died in AUSCHWITZ 20/05/1944, 2 years old
MIKO TABOH, born in 1939 SALONIKI, died in AUSCHWITZ, 4 years old
BERNHARD ABRAHAM, born in 29/11/1940 AMSTERDAM, died in AUSCHWITZ 18/07/1942, 1 year old
CLAUDINE GUTHMANN, born in 20/09/1937 STRASBOURG, died in AUSCHWITZ 30/06/1944, 6 years old
YAKOV ERENREICH, born in 1935 KRAKOW, died in AUSCHWITZ 1941, 6 years old
GYORGY FRIEDMAN, born in 1941 SARVAR, died in AUSCHWITZ 1944, 3 years old
THEA GUTTMANN, born in 1935 BERLIN, died in AUSCHWITZ 1943, 8 years old
FANNY COGAN, born in 27/11/1937 PARIS, died in AUSCHWITZ 10/12/1943, 6 years old
LIA MUGGIA, born in 1941 ROMA, died in AUSCHWITZ 23/10/1943, 2 years old
ERNST KOHN, born in 30/1/1942 BRATISLAVA, died in AUSCHWITZ 10/1944, 2 years old
JAN KRUPP, born in 28/07/1942 OSLO, died in AUSCHWITZ 1942, 1 year old
LEANNE BOROS, born in 1934 WIEN, died in AUSCHWITZ 1943, 9 years old

1,500,000 children were murdered during Holocaust, children who were absolutely innocent and who were killed simply because they belonged to another faith. They were born in different countries, in yours, in mine: France, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Slovakia, Poland, the ex-USSR. They were taken away from their homes and murdered by this monstrous killing machine of Auschwitz and the other concentration camps, the cruelty of which is difficult to imagine, impossible to describe. Every one of these children is remembered, his or her name pronounced, a symbolic star-candle lit eternally for each of them.

I was also touched to learn that those non- Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, are honoured by Yad Vashem as the “Righteous among the Nations”.

The epigraph at the beginning of the article is symbolically addressed to the children of the 25th century, the children of future. The future is based on the present, and the present has not always taken the right lessons from the past. The danger is still here. We need to ask ourselves these most difficult questions: Why are we unable to change the world today? And if we don’t, will our great grandchildren be able to change it?

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