International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust at the German School White Plains, NY

Jan 27, 2009

Gestatten Sie bitte, dass ich auf Deutsch zuerst diejenigen begrüße, die im Mittelpunkt der heutigen Veranstaltung stehen: Sehr verehrte Zeitzeugen, liebe Schülerinnen und Schüler,

Sehr geehrte Frau Professorin Rosenberg,
Sehr geehrter Leiter der Deutschen Schule, Herr Dietrich,
Sehr geehrter Herr Zloch,
Liebe Gäste, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for inviting me to this very important event at the German School dedicated to the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

64 years ago the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated. The Holocaust represents a collapse of all civilized values which has no parallel. The systematic murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others carried out in the name of Germany is the moral disaster of our history. It fills us Germans with shame. And we bow our head before the victims and the few survivors. We also bow our head before those courageous enough who helped the survivors to survive. And to those who gave their lives to preserve human dignity.

Germany recognizes its historical guilt and responsibility for the Shoa. As Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: “We are separated by guilt.”

Yet I am grateful that what matters today is not what separates us, but is what unites us.

We are united in remembrance of the victims and their unspeakable suffering and in the horror of what human beings can do to one another.

We are united in the commemoration of the liberation of Europe, including the unconditional surrender of Nazi-Germany.
We are united in our conviction of “never again,” in the recognition that certain events must never, under any circumstances, be allowed to happen again.

And we are united in the responsibility for preserving the memory of the past and the common responsibility for a shared, more just, tolerant and humane future. More than 60 years after the end of the war, we must meet the challenge of ensuring that in the future, remembrance does not become something remote and abstract, obscured by the veil of history.

By sharing our remembrance with other nations, we are shouldering our undivided historic guilt. To view remembrance as a shared task does not imply any attempt to reduce history to a single dimension, let alone a single interpretation, nor in any way to minimize our guilt and our historic responsibility.

Yet, if Europe’s recent past is to continue to furnish Europe’s present and future with moral purpose – then it will have to be taught anew with each passing generation. Only education about knowledge and remembrance of the past will enable us to take timely action against anti-Semitism, racism and any form of xenophobia. Israel, the United States and Europe are sharing this culture of active, assertive and public remembrance. But there is an urgent need for historical truth in many other parts of the world.

That is why Germany was a strong supporter of the UN resolution dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust.

That is why today’s UN memorial ceremony that takes place at this very hour is dedicated to the theme “An Authentic Basis for Hope: Holocaust Remembrance and Education.”

That is why it is so important that we have places such as the US Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Memorial located at the very heart of Berlin.

That is why for Germans, active remembrance is also expressed in its special historic responsibility for Israel’s security, a responsibility which is part of Germany’s raison d’être.

And – perhaps most significantly - that is why we are so grateful that Holocaust survivors are invited by schools and universities to give their own personal accounts and to pass on their memories to the next generation. Because soon it will be today’s young generation, it will be you, the students of this school - be it Germans, Austrians, Swiss, Americans, Jews, Christians or Muslims - who will have to contribute to the Holocaust remembrance and education in order to shape a more humane future.

Remembrance of the Holocaust has entered a new and critical phase: In the future the likelihood of hearing survivors who speak with natural authority will be increasingly rare. I would like to thank the survivors who are here today for coming, and for passing on your first-hands accounts and experiences through lectures and talks. Commemorative events like today in the German School in New York, in the UN, in Tel Aviv, in Berlin and in many other cities worldwide clearly show that we are indeed sharing this culture of remembrance.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear students,

Allow me to conclude with the words of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: “TheUnited Nations has a sacred responsibility to combat hatred and intolerance. A United Nations that fails to be at the forefront of the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism denies its history and undermines its future.”

We owe it to our past to shape a more just, tolerant and humane future. Working together toward that goal is our common challenge.

Thank you.

Holocaust Remembrance

At night the Empire State Building is illuminated in the colors black, red and gold.