The conference is drawing to a close. What conclusions can we draw? Where do we go from here?

To remember the Holocaust is not an end in itself. The aim of this conference is to remember what can happen when Nazi organisations establish themselves in our countries. And today this is a sad reality.

Well-organised Nazi groups exist today in most of the 47 countries participating in this conference, in several as political parties with bases in federal or regional parliaments. This is no longer a question of some confused young men. Well-organised Nazi groups have today surprisingly strong finances, form international networks where they teach new groups how to recruit and tie new members, how to exploit the weaknesses of democracies, how to make use of internet, when desirable for their purposes, how to develop use of terror, how to scare witnesses.

We, the participants of this conference, and the majority of the population in our countries, do not want this development, but we seem to be unprepared how to respond. We stubbornly stand up in defence of civil liberties for everyone and find it difficult to weigh it against the need to counter a movement that undermines democracy and injures innocent people.

The most important advance after the Second World War was the breakthrough of the principle of human dignity and human rights. This is a fantastic principle:
We are not equally beautiful, not equally gifted, equally capable, equally young or old
but we all have the same value and the same rights.
The United Nations Charter begins with the principle of human dignity, this principle is now written into the constitutions of almost all democratic countries and represent an antidote to the message of racism, it inspires hope of a better future for mankind. If the principle of human rights and human dignity makes its breakthrough into our everyday thinking, then we will have a better world.

Unfortunately this will not happen during our generation; maybe during our childrens’ or grandchildrens’ or maybe our great grandchildrens’ generations.
It is important that we impress upon our children the principle of human rights – but this is not enough. At the same time we must take the growing Nazi movement much more seriously than we do today.

The simple message of Nazism is seductive, especially for those that feel unsure, maybe inferior. And the movement attracts: "You are not inferior, you are superior. Join us who are superior". This was also Adolf Hitler’s message to the German people. The Nazis have always reserved for themselves the right to choose who is superior and who is inferior.

Nazism has plagued mankind throughout it’s history. It has authorised tribal fights, wars, legalised oppression and slavery of people that were chosen as inferior. Today it authorises bullying – you can bully the one who is chosen as inferior, threaten, beat, even kill the one who is considered inferior. Even without leading to a new Holocaust, racism causes a sea of suffering.

If we want to reverse the current development, protect future generations and help those that are already bullied, persecuted, threatened or mistreated then we must fundamentally change our attitudes towards Nazism; we must develop effective methods for fighting it, if necessary change our legislation, and we must do it rapidly.
This conference will be a success if it represents a first step towards the organisation of a forceful international network, with wide authority to fight against international Nazism. And we will have to do this very rapidly, the price will be higher the longer we wait.

To remember the Holocaust is a fragile defence but still the best one against development of Nazism in our countries – a reminder of Nazism’s ruthless cruelty, a reminder that we must never lower our guard, never accept Nazism as a necessary evil within a democracy. Already today Nazism causes too much suffering to be accepted in any form by a democratic society.

We, the victims of Nazism, had to pay a high price. But if you take this message with you then the extermination of several million innocent people – Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and handicapped Germans – will have had some meaning and our suffering has not been entirely in vain. Then we and all those that did not survive, will have contributed to a better world for coming generations.

We, the survivors of the Holocaust, are all between 70 and 80 years old. When the next conference against Nazism is convened, few of us will be left to testify. We appeal to you all. For your own sakes and for the sakes of your children: Do not forget us. You must never forget what can happen when organised Nazism gets established in our countries.