General Assembly Session 60 meeting 41

The President

On 24 January 2005, the General Assembly held its first-ever special session to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. At that session, the Assembly unanimously condemned the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. We paid solemn tribute to the millions of innocent victims of that unspeakable atrocity.

Genocide was committed against the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of people of other ethnic origins and religious and political backgrounds fell victim to that crime against humanity.

This year we are celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations, erected from the ashes of the Second World War. The United Nations was set up to protect humankind from the scourge of war and to serve as an effective international institution for the promotion of human rights, the rule of law and socio-economic development for all. In that context, I welcome the inscription of this new agenda item entitled "Holocaust remembrance".

The Holocaust also reminds us of the crimes of genocide committed since the Second World War. It must therefore be a unifying historic warning around which we must rally, not only to recall the grievous crimes committed in human history but also to reaffirm our unfaltering resolve to prevent the recurrence of such crimes. We cannot, after the horrors in Cambodia, Rwanda and Srebrenica, continue to repeat, "Never again".

Last September, after the 2005 world summit, our leaders did not fail to live up to that test when they unanimously accepted the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This is a major step towards preventing genocide in future.

It is in the spirit both of remembering the crimes of the past and preventing their recurrence in future that we must consider the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance.

I now give the floor to the representative of Israel to introduce draft resolution A/60/L.12.

Mr. Gillerman (Israel)

It is an honour for me to address the Assembly, on behalf of the State of Israel, on an item of such importance to my country and my people and to victims and survivors of the Holocaust of all faiths and nationalities across the globe. I feel moved and privileged to present this historic draft resolution today, as an Israeli, a Jew, a human being and the child of a family of Holocaust victims.

This year, as we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations, we also mark the sixtieth year since the end of the Second World War and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.

The unique connection between those two events is testimony to the fact that the establishment of the United Nations, its founding principles and its noble mission were the world's answer to the horrors of the Second World War and the tragedy of the Holocaust, as is reflected in the very first clauses of the Charter of the United Nations.

The Holocaust constituted a systematic and barbarous attempt to annihilate an entire people in a manner and with a magnitude that have no parallel in human history. Six million Jews -- a full third of the Jewish people -- together with countless other minorities, were murdered, many of them in death camps, factories of death designed specifically for that purpose.

And yet, while the Holocaust was a unique tragedy for the Jewish people, its lessons are universal. The Holocaust was carried out at the height of the rational age, and it represents a watershed in human history. It brought us face to face with the full extent of man's capacity for inhumanity to his fellow man. It revealed the potential to pervert technology, philosophy, culture and ideology to commit acts on an unimaginable scale and with an unthinkable degree of cruelty. It showed that while Jews might be the first victims of anti-Semitism, they are rarely the last. It taught, as Elie Wiesel has said, that indifference to human suffering is not only a sin, it is a punishment, and that by denying the other's humanity we betray our own.

By so shocking the conscience of humankind, the Holocaust served as a critical impetus for the development of human rights; the drafting of landmark international conventions such as the Genocide Convention; and for the very establishment of this Organization.

The United Nations was founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and the commitment to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" and uphold and protect the "dignity and worth of the human person". The United Nations bears a special responsibility to ensure that the Holocaust and its lessons are never forgotten and that this tragedy will forever stand as a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.

The greatest tribute that we, as an Organization, as Member States and as individuals, can pay to the memory of the victims, to the suffering of the survivors and to the legacy of the liberators is to vow together: "Never again".

As Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has stated from this very rostrum, we stand on the brink of the moment when this terrible event will change from memory to history. As the generation of Holocaust survivors and liberators dwindles, the torch of remembrance, of bearing witness and of education must continue forward. It is our duty to the past and our commitment to the future.

In January 2005, States Members of the United Nations convened in this Hall for a historic special session of the General Assembly to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.

At that session, Member States affirmed the important role and responsibility of the United Nations in Holocaust remembrance and education to honour the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and to stand watch against the re-emergence of such evil, for the benefit of future generations.

The fulfilment of that responsibility becomes ever more urgent in the face of an alarming increase in global acts of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, racism and religious intolerance. Sadly, today there is no shortage of human suffering. Oppression, the de-legitimization of peoples and discrimination continue. The horror of the Holocaust has, to our collective shame, not prevented other genocides from occurring. These facts compel us to establish mechanisms that will ensure that future generations will never forget the Holocaust or its lessons.

It is imperative that all States learn the lessons of the Holocaust, for the sanctity of life, for the preservation of humanity and for the prevention of such atrocities in the future. The draft resolution submitted under the agenda item, contained in document A/60/L.12, is intended to further advance those objectives. It seeks to give expression to the commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education within the United Nations system. The importance of the resolution is reinforced by the fact that it would represent the first time the United Nations, in its 60-year history, adopts a resolution relating to the Holocaust.

The draft resolution comprises 10 preambular paragraphs and six operative paragraphs and is the product of consultations with a large number of interested delegations. In its preambular section, the draft resolution recalls several key provisions from relevant human rights instruments and notes the indelible link between the United Nations and the unique tragedy of the Second World War. It takes note of the fact that the sixtieth session of the General Assembly is taking place during the sixtieth year of the defeat of the Nazi regime, and reaffirms that the Holocaust will forever be a warning to all peoples of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism, and prejudice.

In its operative part, the resolution calls on the United Nations, inter alia, to designate 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. It urges Member States to develop educational programmes to inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help prevent future acts of genocide. It further rejects any denial of the Holocaust and condemns without reservation all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur.

In addition, the resolution requests the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach on the subject of the Holocaust and the United Nations, as well as measures to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, with a mandate to report back to the General Assembly on the establishment and implementation of that United Nations programme.

The initial sponsors of the resolution, Australia, Canada, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and Israel, are very appreciative of the overwhelming support the resolution received when it was submitted. At that time, the resolution had 90 sponsors. Since then, the following States have joined as sponsors: Equatorial Guinea, Ecuador, Gabon, Gambia, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama and Sierra Leone.

In our deliberations with other Member States, we have received vast support for the resolution. We urge all States to sponsor this important resolution. We would also like to express our appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his public support and commitment to the resolution, and for the issue of Holocaust remembrance and education in general.

I would also like to thank you, Mr. President, for the leadership and compassion you have shown throughout this process and in this matter.

We look forward to the adoption of the draft resolution by consensus, so that the Organization and its Member States can, in one voice, demonstrate their commitment to the cause of Holocaust remembrance and education, act to help prevent future acts of genocide and advance the fulfilment by the United Nations of its core mission and founding principles.

Let all those who were led to nameless deaths be given an everlasting name here in this Hall today. In the words of the Prophet of Israel, Isaiah:

(quoted in Hebrew, then in English)

"And I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name ... and it shall not be cut off." (Isaiah 56:5)

The President

I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Per Stig Moeller, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

Mr. Moeller (Denmark)

The Danish Government wishes to lend its active support to the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance introduced by Israel. We concur fully with the views that will later be expressed by the presidency of the European Union.

Denmark is a member of the Task Force for Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. We hope through our membership to be able to stimulate further research on and awareness of the Holocaust and other genocides. A Danish research centre on these matters has been established and 27 January has been designated "Auschwitz Day".

The Danish experience of the Holocaust is primarily related to the operation to rescue the Jewish community in Denmark during the month of October 1943, a spontaneous action by the Danish people, made possible in part by the generous acceptance of Denmark's Jewish refugees by Sweden -- your own country, Mr. President. That event illustrates an important point, which is that one has to take action when ethnic cleansing and genocide are on the march. Passivity and silence must not become accomplices in the crime. Responsibility to protect populations from genocide and other crimes against humanity is an imperative. You are not guilty because you belong to a certain race, but you are guilty if you pursue people because they belong to a certain race.

We have unfortunately been witness to genocide and ethnic cleansing since the Holocaust, as if we have not learned the lessons of the past. But we have also seen a major breakthrough in the strengthening of the international legal order since then. I am, of course, referring here to the establishment of the various ad hoc international criminal tribunals and in particular to the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC), which has the competence to prosecute and convict persons who have committed, participated in or ordered the committing of the crime of genocide.

The Danish Government believes that the ICC will have a preventive effect in deterring governmental regimes from carrying out a policy of genocide. At the same time, we lend our full support to the effective functioning of the ICC in its pursuit of justice.

We must all learn from the hard lessons of the past, and in that spirit we welcome the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance as a timely initiative.

The President

I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Phillipe Douste-Blazy, Minister for Foreign Affairs of France.

Mr. Douste-Blazy (France)

As I take the floor to speak in France's name before this Assembly, allow me to say how moved I am. To speak of the Holocaust is neither a banal nor a trivial matter. As Primo Levi noted in his masterpiece, "If This Is a Man", the Shoah is about man, his dignity and freedom.

We who have gathered in this forum are all linked by the memory and history of the Holocaust. The United Nations came into existence out of the rejection of barbarism and Nazi violence. It enshrines in its founding Charter the values that bring us together and are the foundation of this Assembly, values that are characterized by the rejection of extermination and that forcefully reject what happened in Europe at that time. The strength of multilateralism, which this forum expresses, is to build the future of peoples on all the lessons learned from the past. Some could say after the Shoah that they did not know -- today, it is no longer possible to say one did not know.

Remembrance of the Holocaust today is our responsibility. It is to build our future on the knowledge and clear conscience of the past -- it is also to uphold a certain idea of man.

France, like all its European partners, strongly supported the decision to hold the special session last January to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Sixty years ago, the horror-struck Allies put an end to the extermination camps, those places of death whose names remain forever engraved in our memories: Belzec, Sobibor, Majdanek, Treblinka, Auschwitz.

The 60th anniversary has been marked by events and commemorations throughout the year; the most moving being the international ceremony at Auschwitz. All those events were a forceful expression of the international community's duty to remember.

In the face of radical evil and a plan for systematic extermination and in the face of the negationism that sometimes appears in one place or another, all mankind must remember and remain vigilant. So it is for this Assembly, which expresses the universal conscience but also the wish for peace and concord among nations, to send a clear message, as was sent on 27 January in this General Assembly. It is that same message we wish to express and to reaffirm today.

France, like its European partners, is co-sponsoring the draft resolution on the Holocaust. We have two fundamental reasons for that commitment. The first concerns the duty to remember. In July 1995, in his speech at the Vélodrome d'Hiver, the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, recognized the responsibility of the French State in collaborating with the occupying Power in the destruction it wrought. He strongly affirmed that collective memory is an imprescriptible principle, and also affirmed the ethical imperative of collectively shared remembrance.

My country thus stood behind the initiative to designate 27 January as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Shoah. That idea was adopted in 2002 by the Council of Europe and has since been taken up by many States and other international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

By tabling today's draft resolution, the United Nations salutes the designation of 27 January as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. There is, however, another reason why France fully approves the initiative before us. The duty to remember, 60 years after the tragedy, must now be directed to new generations. The last Holocaust survivors are leaving us and only a handful now remain. If the duty to remember is to be passed on today, then our duty is to educate -- and that will be even more true for the future. If a crime such as genocide is not to happen again in the future, the flame of memory must not be extinguished and must be passed from generation to generation.

That is more than a necessity imposed by the barbarism of the past -- it is a responsibility to history. My country long ago introduced Holocaust education in our school system. France is also endeavouring to promote that priority in all European forums. It is doing so in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, which was set up following the Stockholm Declaration of January 2000. It did so at the OSCE conference in 2004 and took the initiative within the European Union to launch a dialogue among education ministers on the subject.

The international community has already taken a major legal step -- which we welcome -- in adopting the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. But it is also through teaching, regular contact with places of remembrance and education that we must awaken future generations. All over the world, such actions can help combat religious intolerance, racism, incitement to violence and discrimination. At the same time as the education of new generations is rooted in history, it involves the future of the world and mankind.

For that reason, it is necessary that, after solemnly marking the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust at the end of 2005, the United Nations should adopt the draft resolution before you today. The text salutes the designation by many States of 27 January as a Day of Commemoration and enshrines it as a day of international observance. It also has the great merit of calling upon States to build on this day of remembrance by working to educate future generations.

Today, the duty to remember requires us to be vigilant and calls on us to act. Remembrance can never be taken for granted, it is a duty that must be constantly renewed. It requires States to mobilize with all people of goodwill involved in education and the training of new generations. That is the meaning of our support for the draft resolution before the United Nations General Assembly today.

Mr. Ungureanu (Romania)

Romania joins and fully supports the statement to be delivered by the representative of the United Kingdom on behalf of the European Union.

I wish to take the floor in my national capacity, as Romania experienced the Holocaust directly and has recently taken a series of steps to assume and come to terms with its own past.

I am proud to be able to inform the Assembly of the progress Romania has been able to achieve, after the obliterating experience of Communism, in regaining its whole historic memory, with both the good and the painful chapters. We have learned to accept and live with the latter.

The Holocaust, born out of a perverse philosophy of hatred, which later became a doctrine of death, symbolizes for us the greatest tragedy humankind has ever known. First and foremost, we need to remember and pay homage to those who perished in the Holocaust. We must not forget, for if we do, we may not be able to act effectively in response to our collective duty to prevent and make certain such horrors will never again happen.

My country's position on the Holocaust is firm, clear and committed. Romania has assumed a strong political commitment to develop Holocaust research programmes, education in the spirit of promoting democracy and tolerance and to combat anti-Semitism, conserve Jewish cultural heritage and commemorate the victims of this tragedy.

A notable step in that regard was the setting up of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by the famous Nobel laureate, Professor Elie Wiesel. At the end of 2004 the Commission issued a report on the Holocaust in Romania -- a true landmark for future studies and public debate on the Holocaust -- and provided a set of recommendations that the Romanian Government has endorsed. This is remarkable progress in the country's efforts to acknowledge its past, including its darker aspects.

My Government is committed to fully observing the recommendations of the Commission and to ensuring the proper follow-up to its work. It has been decided to designate 9 October as National Holocaust Commemoration Day. That was the date in 1941 on which deportations of Romanian Jews to Transdniestria began. This year, we observed Holocaust Day for the second time in Romania.

Furthermore, in March 2002, as part of its comprehensive approach to fighting anti-Semitism, the Romanian Government issued a Government emergency ordinance making unlawful any organizations and symbols of a fascist, racist or xenophobic character, as well as the promotion of the cult of persons guilty of crimes against peace and humanity.

The National Institute for Holocaust Studies in Romania was set up at the beginning of this month. It will be in charge of gathering and publishing documents on the Romanian Holocaust, as well as of promoting educational activities relating to the Holocaust. We can never dwell enough on the role of education and educational programmes in preventing anti-Semitic acts and other forms of intolerance that, during the Second World War, led eventually to the Holocaust.

We have a moral duty to strive harder to make future generations understand the dangers of systematic crimes against peoples and to turn the lessons of the past into the means to prevent discriminatory action from ever happening again. In Romania, an undergraduate-level textbook on Jewish history and the Holocaust was published at the beginning of this month. It is structured in accordance with the recommendations of the Wiesel Commission and will be introduced into the educational system so to ensure that Romanian students have proper knowledge about the Holocaust.

Centres for Hebrew studies have been inaugurated in several Romanian cities, including in my hometown, Iasi.

In December 2004, Romania became a full member of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, an organization that coordinates the efforts of its members for a better understanding of the Holocaust by promoting educational programmes on this issue -- programmes to commemorate the victims, as well as research programmes. In this regard, we are fully determined to play a more active role and to initiate projects in cooperation with other Member States or liaison countries, including at the regional level.

Setting up an annual Holocaust remembrance day in memory of the victims is a way to make future generations understand that they should not forget the tragedies that ravaged twentieth-century Europe. This is also why, together with its European partners, Romania supports the draft resolution to establish such a day of remembrance.

I am persuaded that the step that will be taken today is of crucial importance for the constant remembrance and commemoration of the worst tragedy in humankind's history. As a historian, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs representing my country, I am honoured to be a part of this Day in the General Assembly.

The President

I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Alexander Saltanov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Mr. Saltanov (Russia)

This year, which marks the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the issue of combating anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance weighs heavily on our minds. Humankind recalls with indignation and sorrow the horrific Nazi atrocities, including the Holocaust. My country reveres the sacred memory of the Nazi victims, including 6 million Holocaust victims, half of them -- 3 million -- citizens. Current and future generations should know the causes of those horrendous crimes and fight anti-Semitism, intolerance, extremism and xenophobia in all their manifestations. We must also pay tribute to all of the soldiers who died for the liberation of Europe from fascism and saved from total annihilation not only the Jews but many other peoples.

For my country and, I hope, for all other countries, any attempts to glorify Nazi accomplices are absolutely outrageous -- be they former legionaries of the Waffen-SS or other collaborators who annihilated hundreds and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, prisoners of war and prisoners in concentration camps. Humankind paid too dearly for underestimating the Nazi threat to turn a blind eye to any attempt to revive it 60 years after victory in the Second World War. Such attempts are on the rise, even to the extent that in some countries the day of liberation from the Nazis is proclaimed a day of mourning.

In this connection, the Russian Federation will introduce a draft resolution during this session of the General Assembly on the inadmissibility of certain practices that promote modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and the intolerance associated with them. We are certain that the adoption of that draft resolution by consensus will contribute to the consolidation of international efforts to fight such ugly phenomena.

Today, our global civilization is confronting a new and terrible threat: international terrorists have taken up the baton from the SS butchers. The abhorrent ideology of terrorism has a lot in common with Naziism. We can effectively combat that twenty-first-century evil only through the united efforts of the international community. Xenophobia cannot be good and bad. We must, as a general rule, promptly and effectively repulse any manifestations of extremism of any kind -- political, nationalistic or religious.

We must continue to work tirelessly at the national and intergovernmental levels if we are to overcome intolerance. We must adopt legal measures and develop dialogue and cooperation so as to disseminate ideas of tolerance among civilizations. The United Nations, as a universal Organization, is the most appropriate forum for such an effort. That is why Russia was one of the first countries to become a sponsor of the draft resolution before us.

Sir Emyr Jones Parry (United Kingdom)

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and the 12 countries that have aligned themselves with this statement.

It is 60 years since the end of the Holocaust -- one of the darkest chapters in Europe's history, encompassing the attempt to exterminate the Jews in Europe and the systematic massacre of other groups. Time has passed, but the painful memories have not faded nor can they be allowed to fade. In January, the European Union fully supported the special session of the General Assembly held to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi death camps. And throughout the European Union, from our veterans to our school children, we have remembered the victims and the survivors: the millions of Jews who were murdered and the others who were also singled out: the Roma, the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, political prisoners and prisoners of war.

Today, the international community is firmly resolved that future generations cannot be allowed to forget. The first challenge is to ensure that the Holocaust victims are properly commemorated. That is why the European Union supports a United Nations resolution to establish an annual day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. It builds on the commitment that European Union member States and many others made in 2000 at the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, which commemorated the victims and honoured those who stood against it. It also builds on the Council of Europe's declaration in 2002 of an annual Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and for the Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity.

It is equally important that we draw lessons from the Holocaust. An international day of commemoration would also provide the opportunity to reflect regularly on how the international community is living up to its pledge of "never again". The international community must do all it can to prevent future acts of genocide. A Holocaust survivor, Rafael Lemkin, was a principal inspiration of the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. But, tragically, the world still suffers from the evils of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Failure to prevent those crimes reflects a failure to learn from the horrors of the Holocaust.

We ignore history at our peril. The European Union therefore supports the aim of the draft resolution to foster ways of promoting Holocaust education. The Holocaust should be an integral part of national education curricula. Communities and non-governmental organizations should play their part too. There is no single blueprint for that, nor should there be. But the contribution to tolerance made by teaching and learning about the Holocaust is clear. The Task Force for International Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, to which many European Union member States belong, is a particularly effective way of ensuring high standards in the way we teach about the Holocaust in our schools, universities and communities. We also support the draft resolution's request for the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach on the Holocaust and the United Nations and to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education.

The significance of the Holocaust is universal. But it commands a place of special significance in European remembrance. It was in Europe that the Holocaust took place. And, like the United Nations, it is out of that dark episode that a new Europe was born. The member States of the European Union work together today to promote peace and democracy within the Union's borders and beyond. That is something that we could not have imagined 60 years ago. Yet, some members of our societies still face intolerance and prejudice. The best tribute we can pay to the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust is to speak out against such attitudes in our communities. We all still have lessons to learn, and we therefore fully support the draft resolution.

Mr. Menon (Singapore)

The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in December last year claimed the lives of some 275,000 people from 35 different countries. Less than a year later, at least 50,000 lives were taken in South Asia by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake. Behind the numbers, each death is a tragic story of a human life suddenly taken, a family left behind to grieve the loss or, in many cases, a whole family wiped out in one fell swoop. The international community reacted in both cases with solidarity to help affected countries that needed external assistance. The fearsome power of natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes to devastate entire areas in mere moments and exterminate entire communities sparked serious discussions on what the international community could and should do to save lives when such calamities occur.

Today, we meet in the General Assembly Hall to remember the many victims, not of an act of nature but of one of the worst and most cruel acts of evil inflicted by man upon mankind. Regrettably, other such shameful episodes had been committed previously and have been committed since then against peoples of other religions or ethnicities, although the acts committed were not executed in similar fashion. The key lesson that we, the peoples of the United Nations, should have learned from such episodes is never -- truly never again -- to allow genocides, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity to recur. Just as we condemn the frequent acts of terrorism that kill innocent people these days, we need, similarly, to recognize that there is no justification whatsoever for committing criminal acts such as the Holocaust and that it is important for us to prevent such crimes.

My delegation was therefore much encouraged that our leaders, at the recent High-level Plenary Meeting, recognized for the first time the responsibility of States to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and their responsibility to act accordingly. The 2005 World Summit Outcome states that this responsibility entails the prevention of such crimes, including preventing their incitement, through appropriate and necessary means. It adds that the international community should, as appropriate, encourage and help States to exercise that responsibility and support the United Nations in establishing an early warning capability.

On this solemn occasion, we remember the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust. But the bigger picture goes beyond just Germany and the Jews. The cathartic actions that post-war Germany took, not the least of which was the acknowledgement with contrition of those events and the etching on the collective German memory of the wrongs that Nazi Germany had done to Jews and others, leave little doubt that German society as a whole has sincerely learned the lesson of history and has come to terms with it. And contrary to what some may contend, it is not a question of shaming, or holding responsible, future generations of Germans for their forefathers' actions. Rather, it is a question of a society programming a lesson learned into its collective memory lest it be doomed to repeat the history from which it has not learned.

My delegation would urge all societies that know of, or which have committed, similar wrongs in their past, whether in peace or in war, against peoples of other religions or ethnicities, to recognize the wrong that has been done and take active steps to come to terms with history and internalize those lessons in their collective memory. We would also submit that those lessons of history are instructive for all peoples. Learning from the mistakes of others that led them down the slippery slope of discrimination, envy, prejudice and hatred, we can avoid and work together to avert similar, inexcusable errors and crimes. In that regard, the advocacy of bigoted views, such as the denial of the right of a people or a State to exist, is highly dangerous and completely unacceptable in the modern age.

The Holocaust occurred partly because it had become fashionable in some quarters, using the leverage of the media for mass propaganda, to blame the people of one faith and descent, making them convenient scapegoats, for all sorts of problems that then existed. At the same time, while many did not agree with the Nazis, they felt cowed or, for some reason, chose to remain silent. That is why we cannot afford to be complacent. At the first sign of ethnic or religious defamation, we need to act promptly and warn strongly of the danger. We also need to actively promote greater understanding in order to dispel misconceptions about others who are not like us but whose presence in this globalized world we can no longer afford to ignore. It is all too natural that we tend to prefer other people to be like ourselves and share our way of life, our outlook and our values. So, when a minority differs from the majority, all too often, in the name of integration, which is held up as an existential raison d'être, the majority expects the minority to become more like them and conform to their socio-cultural norms. The minority is subjected to a process of assimilation and, in extremis, forced to accept the imposition of the majority's system of values and beliefs.

Even though the underlying intention may be entirely noble -- for example, so that they might enjoy access to work, education, justice or political participation, all conducted in the ways of the majority -- it is certainly misplaced. A wiser approach would be to work out a modus vivendi to accommodate the minority and to live with one another. It is a huge affront to one's dignity to be regarded as having no values or to be urged to jettison one's system of values, beliefs and way of life as being inferior or wrong in favour of another system. Members of the majority should always ask themselves how they would feel if the tables were turned and they were in the shoes of the minority. It is not for nothing that great and wise men of the past have counselled us not to do unto others what we do not want others to do unto ourselves.

Indeed, the ingredients that foster misunderstanding and hatred remain prevalent in the world today. It is striking to my delegation how little, even in this global age of information, some of us understand about others, even those living just across our borders or amongst us, who are of a different race, ethnicity, culture or creed. Ignorance breeds suspicions and phobias. The tendency of modern mass media to generalize, caricaturize and sensationalize in order to sell news does not help matters. Stereotyping contributes to the wrongful entrenching of baseless fears and the misprofiling of cultural and religious beliefs and practices. We owe it to ourselves and to our posterity to urgently educate ourselves about others.

That is the very rationale underlying the repeated calls for a dialogue among civilizations. And what better dialogue can we have than for all the movers and shakers and force multipliers of global information, in particular the mass media of all stripes, to get their basic understanding of all major cultures and religions right so that they can put out information in a more objective manner? My delegation would submit that the greater influence one has, especially the mass media, the greater is one's special responsibility and role to promote understanding and avoid unwittingly fanning the flames of fear and prejudice that may seed the next conflict along the fault lines of race, culture, faith or civilization. We cannot be complacent and need to work at preserving the harmony that underpins the fabric and foundations of our global society.

Singapore is a small, multiracial, multireligious city-State. Singaporeans do not share a common cultural heritage, but we have nevertheless managed to live and work together harmoniously for 40 years since independence. That is because we recognize our diversity and the value of cooperation and harmony. Our Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian, Arab, Jewish and other communities draw on our traditional cultures to build a common future through mutual understanding, tolerance and accommodation. However, that has not lulled us into complacency. Countries with a multiethnic population and longer histories have broken up because of ethnic conflicts. We realize from our own past, and from more recent experiences of racial and religious strife elsewhere involving physical assaults and attacks on places of worship, how vulnerable our own social fabric is. We take care to ensure that there is justice and equality regardless of race, language or religion, and we do not and will not condone any acts that stir up strife along racial or religious lines. As my Foreign Minister said at the 20th meeting, in his statement during the general debate:

"Tribalism is a basic human instinct. We may proclaim that all men are brothers, but we reflexively distinguish degrees of closeness. Divisions of race, language, culture and religion run deep in human society and surface under stress."

Beyond taking a cautious approach, we have decided to celebrate our diversity in our daily life -- to turn what may seem an adversity into opportunity. We encourage all Singaporeans to see the inherent value of diversity. As the world moves from globalization towards "glocalization" or global localization, our unique knowledge of cultural software, which has enabled us to network easily with both East and West, Europe, America, China, India and the Middle East, can command a premium when people realize that Singaporeans, as intermediaries, can make a huge difference to their business success by fostering better understanding and trust, as well as interpreting and explaining how each distinct culture works. In our own small ways, at the international level, such as at the United Nations, we hope also to contribute to greater understanding of the vital need for tolerance and dialogue towards building a better and more stable world for our children.

Mr. Bolton (United States)

The United States is proud to co-sponsor this important draft resolution, and I am pleased to be here to speak for it.

It is appropriate that, on the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, we come together in support of a draft resolution to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Holocaust and to honour and remember its victims. It is appropriate because the United Nations as an institution was built upon the ashes of the Holocaust and the Second World War with an important mission. That mission is to help ensure that the international community will never again allow such a crime against humanity to be committed -- never again allow the world to be plunged into such violence and chaos.

The greatest tribute we can pay to the Holocaust's millions of victims, of whom by far the greatest number were the six million Jews -- one third of the Jewish people -- who were robbed of their lives in Nazi death camps, is to ensure that we never forget them or their sacrifice. We must do everything we can so that future generations in perpetuity will know of that great crime and learn its important lessons.

While the Holocaust occurred 60 years ago, its lessons are no less relevant today. When a President or a Member State can brazenly and hatefully call for a second Holocaust by suggesting that Israel, the Jewish homeland, should be wiped off the map, it is clear that not all have learned the lessons of the Holocaust and that much work remains to be done. And when some Member States shamefully hesitate to decisively condemn such remarks, it is clear that much work remains to be done.

That is why the draft resolution before us today is so important. Among its measures, it will designate 27 January of each year as an international day of commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, call for the Secretary-General to establish a programme of Holocaust outreach, and urge Member States to put into place educational programmes to teach future generations the lessons of the Holocaust so as to prevent future acts of genocide.

The programme will complement the work already undertaken by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research, a group of 20 countries that has been working with Governments, non-governmental organizations and civil society to introduce into school curriculums material about the Holocaust and the devastation that can result when hatred is allowed to spread and is even encouraged by rogue Governments. Other international organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, are emphasizing education, legislation and law enforcement as the measures that will contain and eventually eliminate racial and religious hatred.

The draft resolution is the most fitting tribute we can pay in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and reflects the core values and principles upon which the United Nations was founded. I hope it will be adopted with unanimous support.

Mr. Southcott (Australia)

I have the honour to speak today on behalf of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It has now been 60 years since the world saw the defeat of a barbaric and tyrannical Nazi regime that had been bent on the systematic eradication of the Jewish people and the violent repression of many others.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand consider the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people during the Holocaust to have been the most abhorrent of crimes. It cost millions their lives and caused untold damage and destruction to the lives of many millions more. Its effects have been profound on a number of generations and continue to be felt today. Our deep sense of loss and sorrow is not only for the many victims and their families, but also for the vitality and talents lost to the world as a whole.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand have been dismayed by recent signs of increased anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, racism and religious intolerance, none of which is acceptable in any form, in any place. The Holocaust showed the depths to which humanity can descend and made clear the devastating consequences of anti-Semitism, racism and persecution.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand commend the draft resolution before us as an important step by the United Nations to ensure that Holocaust remembrance and education remain a priority for all countries, and it serves as a strong reminder to us all of the need to remain vigilant and take steps to prevent such horror from happening again.

Mr. Towpik (Poland)

Poland welcomes and cosponsors the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance. Our reasons therefor have been well presented in the statement made by the United Kingdom Ambassador on behalf of the European Union. I fully associate myself with that statement. Let me, however, add a few additional remarks.

The Second World War brought terrifying atrocities and destruction to many nations. Millions of Poles and Russians, British and Americans, Ukrainians and Belarussians, and members of other nations sacrificed their lives in defending their countries and fighting for liberty. Millions of soldiers and civilians perished in battles, prisons, mass executions and concentration camps.

The Second World War also brought one of the most horrible experiences in human history, which we define today by the term Holocaust. It was an attempt to eliminate an entire nation; an attempt based on racial and religious prejudices; an attempt which led to the creation of a whole system for exterminating people, a system that included not only racist and criminal ideology, but also a horrifying machinery -- an entire infrastructure -- to implement that ideology: concentration camps and centres of extermination. It resulted in the planned and carefully executed murder of one third of the Jewish population, along with that of countless members of other minorities.

We welcome the proposed draft resolution as a gesture commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. It is of particular importance to us Poles. Poland lost millions -- over 90 per cent -- of its Jewish citizens. The Holocaust put an end to a certain era in our history -- an end to the world created by Poles and Jews coexisting on Polish territory. The relationship between those two nations was not free from prejudices, frequently painful ones indeed. However, it was in Poland that the Jewish community was able to enjoy a climate of freedom and tolerance for 800 years. It was in Poland that many Jews found shelter and escaped the discrimination and persecution to which they had been subject in other parts of the world. In return for that, many generations of Jews contributed to the creation of a unique spiritual, cultural and economic heritage that Poland takes pride in having. Their great contribution will be illustrated in the museum of Polish Jewish history that is currently being built in Warsaw.

With the draft resolution before us, we also pay tribute to those who stood against the crime of genocide and who helped its victims. We pay tribute to those who fought in Jewish ghettos and those who, risking their own lives, tried to assist Jews. Those people have been honoured with the distinction "the righteous among nations". To us, they are a role model, an inspiration for our younger generations. They remind us that evil can and should be opposed. We are proud that, among the 20,000 decorated with that distinction, 6,000 are Poles.

The draft resolution also rightly emphasizes that it is important to continue educating on the history of the Holocaust, which is the best demonstration of what ethnic and religious hatred can lead to. It is a tragic warning against any system that is based on ethnic and religious intolerance.

Poland will spare no effort to ensure the lasting preservation of the remnants of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centres that were located in Poland by the German occupiers. They should remain places that are open to the world, where historic reflection and education can take place in the spirit of democracy and tolerance.

It is our duty to shape the awareness of young generations in a spirit of tolerance, respect for human rights and sensitivity to any manifestation of discrimination. That goal can be implemented through educational programmes, such as those planned at the International Centre of Education About Auschwitz and the Holocaust and the Institute of Peace and Reconciliation, which will study contemporary acts of genocide. Poland has also developed youth exchange programmes, which are the best form of active dialogue to combat stereotypes by confronting it with personal experience and person-to-person contact. An example of such a programme is the annual March of the Living, in which Jewish and Polish youth participate, organized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

Finally, the draft resolution reminds us that the main lesson that should be drawn from the terrible experience of the Holocaust is that we should not allow a similar tragedy to happen again against any nation. The generation that has witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust is slowly passing away. Now it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the Organization to remember, to remind and to warn.

Mr. Pleuger (Germany)

First of all, I would like to express my full support for the statement presented by the British Ambassador on behalf of the presidency of the European Union.

For my country, the commemoration of the millions of victims of the Holocaust means remembering not only one of the darkest chapters in Europe's history, but remembering the very darkest chapter in the history of Germany. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, when speaking in April 2005 at the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp of Buchenwald, emphasized the unwavering commitment to democracy and human rights originating in the terrible experiences of the past in saying:

"The Europe of freedom, peace and democracy that we have created over the past 50 years certainly has many roots, but the deepest roots of all are embedded in the darkest years of the twentieth century -- the years when the silent terror of the camps held this very Europe in its grip... From these camps came the most insistent appeal to oppose the forces of injustice and tyranny in whatever guise they may take."

At a time when the last personal witnesses of the Holocaust are leaving us, it is especially important to find new ways to keep the fate of the victims alive in the memory of the world and to keep on asking how such crimes could ever be committed. Every generation has to define its own answer to that question. It is our responsibility to keep continuous guard against anti-semitisim, racism and any form of political, religious or otherwise motivated and disguised intolerance.

As members of the generations living after the Holocaust, we know that genocide is not solely about the mass murder of human beings. Indeed, we know that the roots of genocide may be found in words, in political concepts, in the denial of human, civil and political rights to certain groups of people, or in the dehumanizing of political adversaries, the preaching of hatred and the call for the annihilation of peoples or States. Only by remembering and by defending the human rights and dignity of each and every person in this world may we be saved from having to witness repetitions of history.

It is very fitting that we are discussing this issue here at the heart of the United Nations in the General Assembly, because the United Nations was founded in particular in order to prevent genocide and to defend the human rights of each and every one of us.

Germany, in close cooperation with its friends and partners in Europe, has been and is deeply committed to the strengthening of the United Nations, which is at the centre of the global struggle for human rights and human dignity. Remembering the Holocaust is part of that struggle, and that is why Germany fully supports and co-sponsors the draft resolution before us.