 |
|||||||||
     |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
| You are here: 2000 / Opening Session: Messages and speeches / Speech by the Honorary Chairman Elie Wiesel | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Participants Countries and organizations Conference documentation Conference programme 
|
|
|
|
Speech by the Honorary Chairman Elie Wiesel Wiesel, Elie Speech at the Ceremonial Opening of the Forum Majesties, Your royal highnesses, Presidents, M. Le Premier Ministre, Prime Ministers, Chancellors, and members of cabinets, members of the Parliament, Excellencies, participants and friends: It is with a profound sense of privilege and gratitude that, together with my co-chairman Prime Minister Persson, I have the honor to open this international forum on a painful yet unavoidable theme to which no one may remain indifferent, as we enter a new century haunted by silent shadows bearers of anguish and despair. In search of meaning and even hope, this gathering of statesmen, scholars, teachers, historians and witnesses will explore the origins and the fallout of an unprecedented tragedy and its consequences, all moved by a deep compassion for the victims and thteaching we could receive from their lives and their agonizing death. The task is urgent, the approach difficult. The key-word is memory. Rich and challenging, the program will allow the participants, to explore at least three areas of our enquiry: Why remember? Who is to be remembered? And how are they to be remembered? Thanks to the countless testimonies left for us by the dead and some survivors, and even by the killers themselves, historians have been able to present valuable documentation on what happened and how it happened. An infinite number of facts are now available to anyone who wishes to know. Reading the vast existing literature on the subject, one may learn how, in their all consuming hatred of the Jewish people, the leaders of the Third Reich came to the Final Solution, and how their theories were implemented in Treblinka, Belzec, Ponar, Majdanek and Auschwitz. But how does one transform information into knowledge, knowledge into understanding, understanding into sensitivity. Why was it so easy for Adolf Hitler to impose his racist ideology of violence and death as political instruments upon an entire nation first, and - though temporarily - on so many peoples in occupied Europé? Why Münich and its shameful compromises? Why was Czechoslovakia betrayed? Why didn’t the French and British armies move into Germany immediately when the Wehrmacht attacked their ally, Poland? Why have the leaders of the free world not spoken up with greater vigor when Polish Jews were herded into ghettoes and later, when the infamous Einsatgruppen moved behind the Wehrmacht into Russia murdering, day after day, thousands upon thousands of Jewish men, women and children? Why haven’t the Allies helped the Jewish underground movements in German occupied countries whereas they did send emissaries to the non-Jewish Resistance groups everywhere? And what about the neutral countries? Why have they not opened the doors for Jewish children - at least for children - so as to save them from being shipped off to Birkenau and Treblinka? For one Raoul Wallenberg, how many others who chose indifference as a way to a wait and see the dénouement of the conflict? For a few friends of Antigone and her human compassion, how many followers of Creon and his taste for brutal power? As for the victims themselves - how is one to describe the immense scope of their tragedy? Hunger, fear, pain, solitude, despair, humiliation: that was their daily bread. What was it that kept them from going insane in a world without friends, in which naked brutality was the Law and the Death the emissary of the Eternal Lord? The power of the enemy was absolute: one SS ruled over hundreds of prisoners whose culture or wealth were of no use to them. There was cruelty and danger everywhere. Everywhere, inside that gigantic network of horror, the sky became a cemetery. Everywhere men and women were robbed of their dignity, of their identity. Parents were robbed of their children, children separated from their parents - and they remained normal?! I belong to those who still believe that the Tragedy of the Jewish people during the German reign in Europe is unique, I mean uniquely Jewish, but endowed with universal implications and applications Due to the magnitude of the Tragedy and its meaning - or absence of meaning, according to the late philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, - it must be viewed as a watershed covering all human perceptions, aspirations and endeavours: with Auschwitz in the equation, nothing has been the same; there is a before and after that Event. All our definitions and conclusions, our faith in the Creator and His creation, our hopes and our dreams had to be reevaluated. For the believer, how is one to comprehend such an eclipse of God? For the non-believer, how is one to understand such moral and metaphysical failures of the human mind and soul? Where did society go wrong? When exactly, at what moment, did humanity abdicate its moral obligations? All our triumphs are now darkened by that was illuminated and consumed by the flames in Birkenau. Historians tell us how the catastrophe happened. But why did it happen? Now we know: it could have been avoided. Had the great powers in western Europe acted with greater speed, had they not given in to what the great humanist och socialist leader Leon Blum called - un lâche soulagement - or the simplistic cowardly policy of appeasement, there would have been no second world war. Czechoslovakia and Poland were made to learn one of the vital lessons in international relations, namely: it is safer and wiser to rely on the enemy’s threats than on friend’s promises. In truth, although we deal with the most documented tragedy in recorded history, more remains unknown than revealed. Will the twenty-first century bring us answers to terrifying problems? Will the distance in years make our task easier? Did the killers and their Masters realize the consequences of their crimes? Did anybody warn them that not only they but also, though totally innocent may regretfully have to pay for them? But then, knowing what we already know about the way the Holocaust ravaged the human heart with its poisonous arrows, has human nature changed? Has humanity improved or diminished its chances of survival? In other words: is it possible that all the massacres that occured in the last half of the twentieth century were nothing but a fallout of what had happened earlier? If so, when will it end? The Auschwitz-experience is singular in that it forces the human being of this new century to confront his or her memory and make it either a burden or a privilege. Pushed to the extreme limits, and perhaps beyond, of his or her possibilities, anyone entering the memory of those who remember Auschwitz will have to confront it with humility. Thus there is much fear and sadness waiting for all the participants in this very special gathering. At times, their faith in man’s humanity and his or her ability to attain redemption will be severely tested. Whatever the aspect of what will remain the greatest tragedy in recorded History, all our efforts to comprehend its possible meaning may be reduced to a simple question: will our past become our children’s future? For we all remember Albert Camus’ warning at the end of his novel The Plague: ”As he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from the books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappeared for good; that it can lie dormant for years in furniture and linenchests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and enlightment of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.” Oh yes, the ultimate plague that war is come to an end. Humanity won. The world was saved in 1945. Enemies of humanity were defeated. Totalitarian régimes were toppled. Dictatorships vanished from the scene. But hatred is still alive. And that is the question. So what is to be done now? Prime-Minister and I, as Chairman and honorary Chairman of this conference, have discussed a project yesterday - and here it is. Whereas this forum, or organized at the initiative of Prime Minister Göran Persson of Sweden has elicited such an enthusiastic response from so many men and women, representing so many countries, united by a common quest for memory; and Whereas the commitment to the education of our youth so that they learn the lessons from our past is our goal; Whereas today’s noble and inspiring endeavour deserves not to remain a simple episode, but a beginning. However beginnings need to have their own future. In other words our beginning requires a worthy continuation. You have done so much already. It is only natural for us to expect more. As the honorary chairman of this conference, I appeal to you, our chairman to make it an annual event to be called The Stockholm Forum on Conscience and Humanity. This would be a suitable way of thanking and honoring those who came from so far to share their experience, their fears and above all their hopes. >> Back to top |
|
|
|
Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches
Workshops, Panels and Seminars Closing Session and Declaration Other Activities |
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||