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Remarks by the German Consul General, Dr. Wolfgang
Vorwerk, on the occasion of the United Nations International Day of Commemoration
in memory of the victims of the Holocaust in the House of Representatives
Chamber, MA State House on January 28, 2008, Upstanding Nations: Honoring
Heroism during the Holocaust
In a landmark decision in November 2005, the United Nations designated
January 27 – the day of the liberation
of Auschwitz – as the annual International Day of Commemoration
in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. In 2005, Auschwitz has become
a global cipher for genocide: 6 million men, women and children, murdered
in the Holocaust, murdered because they were born Jews.
This is a day of mourning and remembrance.
We Germans must never separate this day from January 30, 1933. In two
days, exactly 75 years ago, Hitler with
his immeasurable hatred of our German Jewish compatriots came to power,
not on the back of a majority
election victory, or on the back of a revolution, a “seizure of
power”, as Nazi propaganda wanted to make
believe, but because Hitler was appointed chancellor of the Reich upon
recommendation of the powerful
conservative elite in Germany. Failure had many faces in Germany between
1933 and 1945.
In Germany, January 27 has been a day of remembrance, sorrow and reconciliation
since 1996.
Last Friday, Germany commemorated the millions of victims of the totalitarian
Nazi-regime in a Plenary Session
of the German Parliament. Young people from Germany, France, Poland and
the Tschech Republic were also
present. We commemorated all victims, Jews and Non-Jews, but there is
consensus in Germany that the tragedy
of the Jews in Europe was without precedent. The Holocaust was unparalleled,
without comparison in history: an entire people uprooted, destroyed, laid
waste.
Certainly, hardly any country, in its history, has always remained free
from blame for war or violence.
What Germans have done, however, will tarnish the history of mankind forever.
The extermination perpetrated
by Germans on Jews is an indelible part of German history and of German
identity. These are not my words, but
words by the Federal President, the head of State, Horst Koehler.
And the evil of the Holocaust cannot simply be blamed on the "demon
Hitler". All German state organizations
and ministries as well as the military elite, businesses, banks, academia
and medical professionals were directly
involved.
In face of this terrible history, I bow my head before the survivors,
before all of you who have lost family
members in the Holocaust, in mourning and deep respect. I bow my head
before all those who stood up to Nazi
terror and tyranny. I bow my head before all the heroes of those dreadful
years, before the "Righteous Among
the Nations" – individuals who acted honorably and made a difference.
I pay homage to all those, Jews and non-
Jews, who joined the resistance movements in the countries occupied by
Germany and payed with their life.
I do this in deep respect. How often have I asked myself, as a German,
born in 1948, having grown up in the
longest era of peace Europe ever experienced: "Can I say with good
conscience that, confronted with such evil, I
would have summoned the strength to actively resist at that time?"
Would I have been among those men and
women who maintained their decency? Would I have acted like the German
Consul Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz,
member of an upright Bremen family, which I know personally, who participated
in the rescue of several
thousand Danish Jews in 1943? Would I have acted like those diplomats
from other nations mentioned today
who also saved Jewish lives at that time? Would I have warned and advised
Jews to get out of Germany, out of
Denmark, out of German-occupied Europe like the German count, Helmuth
James von Moltke did? My witness:
His 96-year-old widow, Freya von Moltke, who still lives in Norwich, Vermont,
in my consular district, one of
the strongest and most impressive characters I have ever met – living
history, already a legacy in her lifetime.
Would I have stood by my Jewish friends and neighbors and helped them
in any way I could, like my mother’s
parents did?
One is tempted to say: "Yes, of course, I would have stood on the
side of the wronged, on the side of the
righteous." But the truth is: No one is entitled in retrospect to
see themselves on the side of the wronged, on the side of the righteous,
on the side of the heroes or resistance fighters. We simply cannot "opt
out" of Germany's past by assuming a stance of moral superiority,
as President Herzog so rightly said in a speech in the Plenary Chamber
of the German Bundestag on January 27, 1999. "Not opting out"
is a matter of personal morality and honesty. As a father, I do not owe
my 20-year-old son heroism and wishful thinking. I owe him honesty. We
must help young people accept the grave legacy of our forefathers. We
Germans are obliged to do this more than anyone else, because it is from
our own German history that we have learned what man is capable of. We
must prepare our children for their lives as adults, we must develop their
"power of thought, self-determination and non-participation,"
as a famous German philosopher and social scientist put it, their “Zivilcourage”,
their civil courage.
This was and remains the basis of our Holocaust education, which seeks
to prevent Auschwitz from ever
happening again. The aim is to prepare the next generation of young Germans,
some of whom are with me today, to assume and acknowledge this responsibility
in their turn: to act honorably and to make a difference. To stand up
against anti-Semitism, right-wing-extremism and against Holocaust deniers.
This is so important because
anti-Semitism and right-wing-extremism is an attack on our democracy,
on our way of life, on the diversity and
pluralism of our society. It is an attack on each of us, not just on someone
else.
Only one day before his death, on April 30, 1945, Hitler concluded his
so-called “will” with the words: “Above
all, I call upon the leader of the nation and their followers to observe
painstakingly the race laws and to oppose
ruthlessly the poisoners of all nations: international Jewry.” But
Hitler did not get another chance to make
Germany “Jew-free” and there will be no late victory for his
vile message.
Germany has the fastest growing Jewish community in Europe. It has become
once again a place where Jews can and want to live: Where rabbis are again
being ordained - for the first time since 1942! Where new synagogues and
Jewish Community Centers are being built. Where Jewish schools and kindergartens
have opened, to expose children to the Hebrew language, Torah studies
and Jewish spirituality.
Berlin’s new Jewish Museum, finished in 2001, designed by Daniel
Libeskind, is visited by millions, and not
only by foreign visitors! And it is only one of a hundred Jewish museums
in Germany and there are thousands of
activities by schools and private groups and initiatives in Germany with
regard to our past.
Who would have thought, that Germany and Israel would celebrate the 40th
anniversary of the establishment of
diplomatic relations in 2005 in a spirit – not of normality, but
in a spirit of friendship? Today Germany stands as
one of Israel’s strongest allies in Europe. Who would have thought
that in 2006 on the occasion of the centennial of the American Jewish
Committee, German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be invited to Washington
to give the keynote speech? Who would have thought that a German Consul
General would ever be invited to speak on the Jom HaShoa, on the Holocaust
Memorial Day, as it happens in Boston? All this is, more than anything
else, testimony to the readiness of the Jewish people, to hold out their
hand, to reach out and to connect with a new Germany, to make sure that
history is not a trap, but a chance for a better future for all of us.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share these thoughts with you
on this important day in remembrance
of the victims of the Holocaust and also in recognition of those countries
that stood up to Nazi tyranny and terror
and liberated all of us, including Germany, from the inhumanity and tyranny
of the National
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