Haaretz
Tevet 28, 5766
In an
official response to a global commemoration of the Holocaust, the Iranian
mission to the United Nations dispatched a letter to the General Assembly
president last week which called for "scientific scrutiny and rigor" to
determine the veracity of the Nazi genocide against European
Jewry.
The Iranian document, a copy of which was obtained by
Haaretz, accuses Israel of "routinely attempt[ing] to exploit the
suffering of the Jewish people in the past as a cover for its crimes being
perpetrated against Palestinians in the occupied territories, including
massacres, demolition of houses, properties and farmland as well as acts
of state terrorism."
In the letter, the Iranians urge the
international community "not [to] allow the Zionist regime to manipulate
humanitarian sentiments to pursue its illegitimate goals."
"Addressing an historical event of horrifying enormity, with the
view towards avoiding its reoccurrence, requires a commensurate degree of
scientific scrutiny and rigor," the letter, which was unsigned and dated
January 23, states.
"Rendering political judgement of such an event
and closing the door to any scientific inquiry on their characteristics,
scope, and extent would seriously undermine the sincerity of the endeavor,
particularly in its preventive aspect," it said.
"The basic
principle of democracy, including the right of freedom of expression and
belief, should pave the way for exploring different aspects of historical
events without any arbitrary restriction," the letter reads. "Moreover,
genocide and immense suffering should not be manipulated for political
purposes."
Gillerman: Iran preparing another Holocaust
In
a speech before the UN General Assembly, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Dan
Gillerman warned the world body that Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's increasingly hostile rhetoric against Israel and his
statements in favor of Holocaust denial carry with them a real threat of a
future genocide.
"We sound an alarm, a call to arms and a wake-up
call to the world," said Gillerman, who cautioned of the gravity of "a
world in which a member state of this organization calls for wiping Israel
off the map, a world in which an extreme and evil regime denies the
Holocaust while preparing the next one."
"On this day I want to
express to you in this hall and around the world my deep regret,"
Gillerman said. "I regret terribly that the State of Israel did not exist
in 1938 or 1943, because if it did, this horrible event would never have
happened."
"And today, from this podium, in this hall, on this
solemn day, I warn to you that as long as there is an Israel no Jew will
again be made to wear a yellow star or will be tatooed with a number,"
Gillerman said.
"And I warn to you there will forever be an Israel
so this horror will never be witnessed again," Gillerman said before
ending his remarks with a Hebrew proverb.
"We remember the
sacrifice of the victims, we salute the courage of the survivors, many of
whom are in this hall, as their numbers dwindle while the Holocaust turns
from a memory to becoming history," Gillerman said.
"May God give
his people strength, may God bless his people with peace. Shabbat
shalom."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday the fate of
the victims of the Holocaust should remind the world to be vigilant
against racism and keep in check the "bigots" denying the extermination of
the Jews during World War II.
"The fate of the victims of the
Holocaust should be a warning for all of us that we live in a world where
... you have modernism mixed with barbarism and we should be vigilant in
trying to ensure in that what happened is never repeated," Annan told
reporters after meeting with Holocaust survivors in Zurich.
The
meeting was held to commemorate the liberation of Nazi death camps on Jan.
27, 1945 and to mark the first "International Holocaust Remembrance
Day."
Annan called on individuals and governments to counter the
"bigots" denying the Holocaust. "There are bigots today that deny ... that
the unique experience of the Holocaust occurred and that should be
countered. You start with humiliations, you start with racism, you demean
the other and before you know it has moved on to incredible levels," he
said.
Kurt Julius Goldstein, a 91-year old German who spent 30
months in the Auschwitz concentration camp, said he survived thanks to
Polish miners who smuggled a sandwich for him every night. "It is due to
their solidarity that I am still alive." Goldstein said he enjoyed
exchanging some of his feelings with Annan.
Marian Turski, an
83-year old Polish survivor, said the friendship and tight discipline
between 10 camp members helped him survive. After losing his glasses -
usually a death sentence in the camps - each of his friends gave up a
third of his meager daily bread ration to bribe camp guards for a pair of
replacement glasses.
The commemoration comes just four days after
Iran said it would follow through with plans to organize a conference on
what it terms the "scientific evidence" for the Holocaust.
The
planned conference, which has drawn condemnation from Western leaders, is
yet another step in hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's public
campaign against Israel.
Ahmadinejad has called the Nazis' World
War II slaughter of 6 million European Jews a "myth," and said the Jewish
state should be "wiped off the map."
Without mentioning Iran by
name, Annan said in a statement, "we must reject their false claims
whenever, wherever and by whomever they are made."
Last year, the
UN General Assembly commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of
the Nazi death camps with a special session, a stark change for a body
that was often reluctant to address the extermination of the Jews during
World War II.
Soviet troops liberated the largest death camp,
Auschwitz, on Jan. 27, 1945. Between 1 million and 1.5 million prisoners -
most of them Jews - perished in gas chambers or died of starvation and
disease there. Overall, 6 million Jews were killed in the
Holocaust.
European leaders remembered the Holocaust on Friday with
commemorations shadowed by concern over anti-Israeli remarks by Iran's
president.
Several leaders used the occasion to reject
Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel should be wiped off the map and his
description of the Holocaust - the murder of 6 million Jews by the forces
of German dictator Adolf Hitler - as a "myth."
On a clear, cold day
at Auschwitz, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz placed a
wreath and bowed his head at the foot of the main memorial in honor of the
some 1.5 million people who died at the Nazi-run camp.
The
Holocaust "is a crime that tarnishes human history," Marcinkiewicz said.
"Let it be a warning today and for the future. One cannot submit to
ideologies that justify the possibility of trampling on human
dignity."
Marcinkiewicz was joined by the Israeli ambassador to
Poland, camp survivors and representatives of the Jewish
community.
Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz and the neighboring
Birkenau camp on Jan. 27, 1945, as World War II neared its end. Some 1.5
million people, most of them Jews, died there from gassing, starvation,
exhaustion, beatings and disease. Other victims included Soviet prisoners
of war, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents of the
Nazis.
In Prague, Auschwitz survivor Felix Kolmor urged people to
look ahead as well as back.
"Let's not forget that memories of our
suffering have to also be a point of departure for creating a better
future," said Kolmer, 83.
Meanwhile, in Budapest, Hungary, some
3,000 people gathered outside parliament to release 600 white balloons
symbolizing the 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.
Tamas
Bandi, 66, attended the memorial with his 13-year-old granddaughter,
Agnes. "My mother and father were deported in front of my eyes when I was
4 years old," Bandi said, tears running down his face.
"These are
my parents," Bandi said, pointing to the names he had written on a
balloon.
"When I let go of the balloon, I will think of them
looking down on me and wish that this never happens
again."
Germany's parliamentary president Norbert Lammert urged
that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to influence national policy,
referring to recent remarks by Ahmadinejad in warning of the danger of
anti-Semitism.
Lammert stressed that the need to commemorate the
millions of Jews and other victims murdered by the Nazis will not diminish
with time.
"We want to - and we must - continue to be prepared to
learn from our history," Lammert said at a special session of
parliament.
"The past weeks have shown us how much not only we
Germans need this remembrance day," he said. "With dismay we have had to
note that today, even presidents insist on describing the Holocaust as a
fairy tale and go so far as to make anti-Semitic remarks.
Germany
has joined other nations in expressing concern about Ahmadinejad's calling
the Holocaust a "myth" and saying the Jewish state should be wiped off the
map or moved to Germany or the United States.