european day of tolerance

Brussels (Belgium)November 10, 2008

European Day of

Tolerance

Conceptof the

international project

Third World HolocaustForum – to commemorate70 years since dieKristallnacht

2European Day of Tolerance

concept of the International Project

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Lluнs Maria de Puig, PACE President

Jan Figeľ, European Union Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth



Date: November 10, 2008

Venue: the Atomium (Brussels Expo), Brussels

Key speakers: Lluis Maria de Puig, PACE President, AleksanderKwasniewski, former president ofPoland, Moshe Kantor, President ofthe European Jewish Congress,President of the World HolocaustForum Foundation

Participants and Guests: heads ofstate, heads of government, specialinvitees, representatives of NGOs andJewish communities from all overEurope, university and high schoolstudents, Holocaust survivors

Event description:



Event description:Tentative programme:

Duration: 1.5 – 2 hours.

Introductory remarks: Moshe Kantor

Short presentation by Lluis Maria De Puig, PACE President

Speeches by heads of state, heads of gov-ernment

Presentation by Aleksander Kwasniewskiof the European Convention of Toleranceand the new forum on Tolerance

День толерантности

в Европеконцепция Международного проекта

WorldHolocaust

Forums 2005-2006

5



The first “Let My People Live!” World Forum was held in Krakow, Poland, inJanuary 2005 to mark 60 years since the liberation of the German Nazi concen-tration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The forum was widely supported by leadinginternational organisations, including the Council of Europe and theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as top-tier politiciansthroughout the world.

Representatives of 40 countries, including 24 official delegations, led by theirheads of state and government, took part in the forum.

The first forum was attended, among other high-ranking officials, by President ofGermany Horst Kohler, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin,President of the Republic of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of theState of Israel Moshe Katsav and Vice President of the United States of AmericaRichard Cheney.


European Day of Tolerance 7

First World Forum

“Let My People Live!”

January 27, 2005, Krakow



First World Forum





The second “Let My People Live!” World Forum to commemorate 65 years sincethe Babi Yar tragedy was held in Kiev, Ukraine, in September 2006. It was organ-ised by the Government of Ukraine, the World Holocaust Forum Foundation andYad Vashem – the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.

More than 1,000 people from sixty countries took part in the forum, among themheads of state and government of 46 countries, members of international politi-cal, public and religious organisations, including the Council of Europe, EuropeanUnion, United Nations, World Jewish Congress, European Jewish Congress,European Jewish Fund, American Jewish Congress, as well as prominent politi-cians, guests of honour, scientists, artists, witnesses to the tragedy, liberators ofKiev and representatives of youth organisations.

More than 500 accredited journalists provided media coverage on the forum andother events marking 65 years since the Babi Yar tragedy.

The forum’s participants adopted the World Holocaust Forum Declaration, wel-coming efforts to preserve the memory of victims of World War II, the Holocaustand its lessons for future generations and an initiative to organise the next forumin the series in 2008 to commemorate 70 years since die Kristallnacht.



Second World Forum


September 27, 2006, Kiev



Second World Forum





First World Forum



Historical background:

What preceded the events of die Kristallnacht



Among other reasons, the Nazi’s rise to power in Germany waspossible due to country’s defeat in WWI and the victors’ crush-ing of the German spirit. Nazi rule brought misfortune and suf-fering upon the German nation and the whole continent. Theirideology was founded on hatred, aggression, destruction anddeath.

Julius Streicher, one of themost odious Nazi leaderswho consistently supportedthe idea of total extermina-tion of Jews (centre), withHermann Goering andJoseph Goebbels

Historical background



The ideology of those people – the Nazi ideology– was based on criteria defining superior andinferior races and nations. The 1935 Nazi con-vention in Nuremberg adopted race laws for theReich known as the Nuremberg Laws. These lawsactually outlawed Jews and people of certainother ethnicities living in Germany, deprivingthem of Reich citizenship. The new laws definedsuperiority and qualified various nations as legiti-mate or illegitimate.

The Nazis defined the Jews as useless, worthlessand having an adverse effect on the German peo-ple. Jews were to be exterminated.

Instructions for assess-ing “race value”, usedin the Nazi Germany toillustrate the NurembergLaws of 1935


It went beyond imagination that in the 20thcentury, an era of technical, scientific andhumanitarian progress, a state in the very heartof Europe would make a huge leap into the past,that the new German Fuhrer and his cliquewould drag the country into an epoch of bar-barity.

It was still more unbelievable that other“civilised” nations in Europe and around theworld maintained relations and cooperatedwith these barbarians. They turned a blind eyeto the inhumane crimes, which first seemedminor and harmless, only to grow more far-reaching, disastrous and bloody. Eventually, thecrimes became so monstrous that the civilisedworld simply refused to believe they were true.

Signing the MunichAgreement, September 30, 1938


European Day of Tolerance 17Historical background

The Story of the St. LouisNothing happens in one moment. Hitler couldnot switch on the death conveyors for Jews andmany other ethnicities in Dachau, Treblinka,Buchenwald and Auschwitz without some prepa-ration. He could not simply declare Jews an out-law nation worthy only of immediate extermina-tion. There had to be an official explanation.Everything else would evolve as a consequence.

Hitler needed a public pretext. In Germany, prop-aganda and provocations were slowly but steadilyturning people against Abraham’s descendants,but something of a larger scale would be requiredfor the rest of the world.

Something bigger did happen. The “civilisedworld” helped Hitler willingly, as is demonstrat-ed by the story of the St. Louis ocean liner, whosepassengers tried to escape the horrors of theThird Reich. This story is absolute proof that theindifference and idleness of a world reluctant todeal with the problems of others can open thedoor to evil and eventually present us all withthe same problem.

St. Louisin the port of Hamburg


European Day of Tolerance 18Historical background



The Story of the St. Louis

On Saturday, May 13, 1939, the Trans-Atlanticliner St. Louis left Hamburg, its port of origin.The majority of its 937 passengers had obtainedtourist visas. In reality, everything was muchmore complicated. The passengers were Jews flee-ing from the Reich, where they would be exiledor killed or deprived of their property. None ofthem intended to return to Germany soon.

It is common knowledge that neither Cuban, U.S.nor Canadian authorities allowed most of the St.Lewis passengers to land in their countries. Aftercovering 10,000 miles, the St. Louis arrived inAntwerp, only 300 miles from its port of depar-ture. The passengers who went ashore inBelgium were put on a train with the doorslocked and windows nailed shut to “ensure theirown security.”

Those who landed in Holland were immediatelysent to a refugee camp.

The passengers accepted by the United Kingdom disem-barked in Southampton on Wednesday, June 21. Theirwandering had lasted forty days and nights. They werelucky that the United Kingdom was the only country freefrom Nazi occupation once WWII began.

When WWII broke out and Germany occupied mostEuropean countries, all the continent’s population was “inthe same boat.” The circle closed. Other people’s misfor-tune turned out to be a common misfortune shared by all.




Significance of the Forum

On the one hand, die Kristallnacht was the cul-mination of ideological and legal efforts by theNazi leaders to create a Judenfrei Germany. Onthe other hand, it was the beginning of the roadto hell that brought death, not only to millionsof Jews and non-Jews, but also to the Germanpeople. By fostering anti-Semitism, Hitler suc-ceeded in gaining power over the Germannation. Germans became accustomed to the ideathat Germany’s future lay in the Fuhrer’s hands.According to Cardinal Christoph Schonborn(the Archbishop of Vienna), “die Kristallnachtthrew Germans into a bottomless abyss ofhuman guilt.”

The main message of the Forum’s organisers isto make the global community understand thatthe countries of Europe and the rest of theworld are, to a certain extent, responsible forHitler’s crimes. While Hitler organised theextermination of Jews and other “racially inferi-or” citizens, European leaders and nationsremained indifferent to Nazi policy and did nothinder it, thus allowing Hitler to commit hiscrimes.

Importance of the third World Holocaust Forum

The forum will demonstrate the importance of dieKristallnacht as the precursor to the active stage of theHolocaust, marking a final transition from popularanti-Semitism to the implementation of the JudenfreiGermany concept; as the first link in the chain thatled to the colossal massacre of World War II. DieKristallnacht encouraged the Nazis to continue theiratrocities against Jews (and non-Jews), including theBabi Yar tragedy and the concentration camps inBuchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka and other death sites.

Die Kristallnacht was the beginning of the road to hell.Babi Yar was the next step on this road – executionsof Jews became mass murders, claiming tens of thou-sands of lives. This road brought the world toAuschwitz, the apotheosis of senseless exterminationof millions of people.

This idea may be expressed as “Triangle of Dates andEvents” concept. (see next page)





Triangle of Dates

and Events

Babi Yar Memorial Gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial

Synagogue in Nuremberg,burned on the night ofNovember 9-10, 1938



Shamefully, Nazi ideas are still alive and being supported.

To understand the events underlying die Kristallnacht, we mustremember that world governments and nations failed to recog-nize the mortal danger in 1938.

The Nazis’ barbaric acts and Hitler’s state-level genocide ofJews did not keep civilised Europe from developing relations,concluding treaties and forming political and military allianceswith Germany. In fact, Jews were “a touchstone” for Nazi lead-ers. When the global community and governments ignored thepersecution and initial extermination of Jews, that signalled toHitler and his entourage that they could continue doing what-ever they wanted…

We know the outcome: World War II was the most unprece-dented massacre in human history, involving nearly half of thecountries in the world. The war brought terrible destruction onhundreds of European towns, enormous damage to theeconomies of many countries and many cultures, and killedtens of millions of soldiers and civilians.

And, strange as it may seem, this horrific blow to western civili-sation came from its own heart. Civilisation struck itself.

Forum Goals



Today, Nazism is areality rather than a myth. There aremore than 1,000 neo-Nazi and extremeright organisationsoperating in Europewith several millionmembers

A key message of the forum is to draw a parallel between the danger posed by the Nazis inthe 1930s and the existing nuclear threat. The past century’s Holocaust can recur in the21st century, but on a new, global level. It will have no ethnic, religious or state borders.

The global community underestimates the nuclear threat and does not believe it is real.

The acute nature of the threat is proved by the actions of so-called threshold countries, primarily Iran and its leaders, who are implementing its nuclear programme and may behelping terrorists acquire nuclear materials.

Similarly, the world did not recognize the danger when the Nazis came to power inGermany. It paid a high price for its blindness.



Forum Goals



A fundamentally new understanding of theevents:

Hitler’s crimes are not the responsibility of Germany alone.

Everyone’s indifference encouraged the Nazisto commit their crimes with impunity.

We must prevent the same mistake in thefuture!

We must not ignore the threat of anuclear holocaust or consider itunlikely. We must act now.

Forum Goals

Mankindshould be tolerant to tolerance and intolerant to intolerance

The forum will emphasise the globalimportance of fighting xenophobia andits acutest form, anti-Semitism. It willalso attract the attention of the inter-national community and political leaders to the need to confront therecent escalation of anti-Semitism andxenophobia in Europe and all over theworld, as well as the potential consequences of failing to do so, byusing the example of die Kristallnachtand its aftermath.



Forum Goals



The Forum provides an opportunity for VIP participantsto hold bilateral and multilateralmeetings. It is the perfect platform for top-tier politicaldiscussions.

Lluнs Maria de Puig

Hans-HertPottering

Forum Goals

..



Third World Forum “Let My People Live!” tocommemorate the 70-th Anniversary of dieKristallnacht in Germany (Draft of the halldecoration design). November 2008, Brussels

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