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| You are here: 2000 / Closing Session and Declaration / Closing Remarks by the Prime Minister of Sweden, Göran Persson | |||||||||
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Closing Remarks by the Prime Minister of Sweden, Göran Persson Persson, Göran Closing Remarks by the Prime Minister of Sweden Excellencies!
The Stockholm Forum on the Holocaust has been very special. To all of you who have participated and contributed, I offer my warmest gratitude and appreciation. Honoured participants! Ladies and Gentlemen! Dear friends! Let us first of all offer our thanks to two very special men: Eli Wiesel and Yehuda Bauer. Your commitment, knowledge and belief in human dignity have inspired us all. Two other men, much younger though, have also played an important role; not least in a Swedish perspective. We pay homage to Stéphane Bruchfeld and Paul A Levine, who wrote the magnificent book "Tell Ye Your Children...". The International Task Force will continue its important work. I am convinced that Steven Smith, David Cesarani, Ulf Hjertonsson, Jonathan Cohen and Bennet Freeman will play the same important role in the future as they have in the past. The Living History project will also continue. But the woman who has led the project will be taking a break for a while, as she is to give birth to a new life. Good luck and thank you, Mrs Anna-Karin Johansson. Behind the scenes, Ambassador Lars-Erik Wingren and ambassador Peter Hammarström, along with Eva Fried and Veronika Bard-Bringéus have arranged and conducted the Conference most efficiently, together with experts, guides, guards, the police, interpreters, musicians, officials from the Government Offices and many, many others. Finally, and above all, I would like to to thank the many survivors who have taken part in and supported the conference, and helped us take another step towards understanding. * * *
Ladies and Gentlemen, When I opened this conference two days ago I told the story of the small town of Izbica in south-east Poland. I told the story of a town and the murder of its inhabitants, of a mass murder. In fact, there is another place with the same name on the map. The spelling is the same, but the pronunciation is different. It is not Poland. It is not the Holocaust. The story is different - except for one thing: it is the scene of a mass murder. This Izbica is situated in central Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia. It is a scene of ethnic cleansing - not decades ago, not years ago, just some months ago. In March 1999, approximately 150 persons, almost every single inhabitant of the village, were killed. The same name, a similar crime - it is a coincidence, of course. And yet, it isn't. Many survivors of the Holocaust have talked about the anguish they often feel when they read newspapers or watch the news on TV. We all watch the rapidly shifting images - a wounded soldier, a starving child, refugees on the road or in camps, terror-struck people, dead civilians on the street covered by blankets. Regrettably these images are all too familiar. They reach us via satellite from every continent. Hedi Fried, survivor and specially invited guest at this conference, wrote an article about this a year or so ago. I still remember it. She wrote: "I watch a picture of a girl clutching two loaves of bread. Behind her two soldiers with guns." She was describing a picture of a girl in a refugee camp in Kosovo, protected by UN forces. She remembered all too well another girl clutching bread, but with no kindly disposed soldiers to protect her - a Jewish girl in a ghetto. She wrote: "I can see myself." There are important differences between these two images. The girl in the ghetto faced the gas chamber. The girl in the refugee camp faced a difficult and uncertain future, but the soldiers were there to help. I remember this article because of the question Hedi Fried put: "Have we learned anything at all?" Yes, we have learned. But evidently, not enough. There are frightening similarities between some of the pictures that we see in the papers each morning, and the images of the Holocaust. Frightening because they depict people who are judged on the basis of their ethnic group. People - deemed to have less value. People - murdered for no other reason than the fact of their existence. Who has the right to place themselves above human dignity? The answer is: no-one. No-one. And yet, as the 21st century dawns - there are people and regimes that are prepared to do just that. We should have learned more. Europeans entered the last century viewing themselves as colonial masters with the right to determine the fate of other peoples, in many cases inflicting great tragedies. It is only recently that the world has been able to liberate itself from that legacy and the racist thinking underlying it. The last century saw large-scale suffering over and over again. The bitter memories that haunt us have many names, from Armenia to Cambodia to Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. These days, we are deeply disturbed when we see the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate force against the Chechen population. So let me say again: It is the end of the silence, and the beginning of a new millennium. The Holocaust will always hold universal meaning. Although we have left the century in which the Holocaust occurred, we must continue to study it in all its dimensions, at all times. We must add more pieces to the puzzle, foster greater awareness of the causes, acquire more knowledge about the consequences. But if we think that more research about the Holocaust will provide us with answers that are crystal clear, then we are mistaken. If we think that more education will mean clear-cut, ready-made solutions that each of us can grasp, then we are mistaken. Some of the answers will always be beyond our grasp. But that must never ever lead us to the conclusion that it is pointless to seek them! It is the only way to prevent a future where people have the answers engraved on their skin. Dear friends, During these last three days, statesmen from all over the world, experts, educators, scientists, survivors have done something extraordinary. It took us fifty-five years to join forces in a common commitment to Holocaust remembrance, research and education in all our countries. In three days we have made history - or I should say - future. Three days, although it seems much longer. So much has been said, so many thoughts have been expressed, so much has been shared, so much has been accomplished in that time. We now have a declaration that indicates our common direction. We have many tasks ahead in our different countries. Now we take our leave and go home. We do so full of new thoughts and insights. We do so with the feeling that the task has somehow got harder, because it has become more complex. But we also do so with the feeling that the burden has lightened a little because there are many of us to share it. We take our leave with the words of Yehouda Bauer ringing in our ears: "You shall never be a perpetrator. You shall never be a victim. You shall never be a bystander." We take our leave with the question of Elie Wiesel echoing in our minds: "Will our past become our children's future?" We have heeded the warning, we have taken a stand: We will never forget, it must never happen again. Let me express my hope that many of us will meet again in Stockholm, this time next year to join inan event such as the one proposed by Elie Wiesel - a Stockholm Forum on Conscience and Humanity. Welcome back to Stockholm. Let us meet again. Let us be guided by the words of the old Testament: "Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." Thank you, each and every one. >> Back to top |
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Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches Plenary Sessions: Messages and speeches Workshops, Panels and Seminars Closing Session and Declaration
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| For information about this production and the Stockholm International Forum Conference Series please go to www.humanrights.gov.se or contact Information Rosenbad, SE-103 33 Stockholm, Sweden | |||||||||