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April 29, 2008

German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth Speaks at Holocaust Days of Remembrance Ceremony in Alexandria, VA, on April 29, 2008

On the invitation of the City of Alexandria, Ambassador Klaus Scharioth was the guest speaker today at the city’s annual ceremony as part of the weeklong commemoration of the national Days of Remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

The following is Ambassador Scharioth’s speech.

Mayor Euille,

Representative Moran,

Vice Mayor Pepper,

Members of the City Council,

Members of the Remembrance Committee,

Ms. Charlene Schiff,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for the warm welcome and the invitation to speak to you on the occasion of the “Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust” in Alexandria. The city of Alexandria was the first city in the greater Washington area to establish its own Holocaust Remembrance Day, 21 years ago: that deserves special credit.

This year is the first time you have invited the German Ambassador to speak to you. It is a great honor for me to be here with you today. I would like to thank you for this honor.

We are remembering the Holocaust this week.

We remember the murder of six million European Jews carried out in the name of Germany.

We remember the unspeakable suffering brought to the Jewish people, to Europe and to the whole humankind.

The Holocaust represents a collapse of all civilized values which has no parallel.

It fills us Germans with shame. It is the moral disaster of our history. And I bow my head before the victims and the few survivors. I also bow my head before those courageous enough to help the survivors to survive. And those who gave their lives trying to preserve human dignity.

Germany recognizes its historical guilt and responsibility for the Holocaust. As German 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 what unites us.

We are united in the horror of what human-beings can do to one another.

We are united in remembrance of the victims and their suffering.

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.

We are united in the responsibility for preserving the memory of the past and the common responsibility for a shared, more humane future.

More than 60 years after the end of the war, we must meet the challenge of ensuring that in future remembrance does not become something remote and abstract, obscured by the veil of history. Remembrance is active.

The individual names of the victims that lie hidden behind the anonymous numbers must not be allowed to be forgotten. The faces belonging to those names, the histories of the victims, and the accounts of the survivors must not become lost.

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

That is why I am so grateful that many Holocaust survivors appear at schools and universities to give their own personal accounts and to pass on the memory to the next generation. I know that some survivors are here with us today. I would like to thank you for coming and in particular for passing on your knowledge and experiences through lectures and talks. Remembrance is active.

For the memory remains alive only when it is concrete, when it is linked to names, places, and histories.

More than 60 years after the end of the war, we must also re-commit ourselves to the challenge that our pledge to shoulder responsibility for the future does not become an empty phrase.

Remembrance is active.

For us Germans, this active remembrance is expressed in a special responsibility to the State of Israel.

This year, the first German-Israeli intergovernmental consultations were held on Cabinet level in Israel to further advance cooperation between Germany and Israel.

On her visit, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to the Members of the Knesset and said – and I quote –

“Every German Government and every German Chancellor before me has shouldered Germany’s special historical responsibility for Israel’s security. This historical responsibility is part of my country’s raison d’être. For me as German Chancellor, therefore, Israel’s security will never be open to negotiation.”

Germany staunchly stands by Israel and its people.

Remembrance is active. That also means that we take action against any form of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia must never again be allowed to gain a foothold in Germany or Europe or anywhere else. The German Government and the overwhelming majority of all Germans stand by this.

Remembrance is active. That also means that over the years we have taken in some 200,000 Jews in Germany, mostly from the former Soviet Union. The Jewish community in Germany is now larger and more vibrant than ever before since the Second World War. For us, this revival of Jewish life in Germany is at once a gift and an enormous joy.

Synagogues, training of Rabbis, Jewish kindergartens, kosher stores – all these have a place in today’s Germany again, and that makes us very happy. Many people in Germany, who for a long time had no contact with Jews, now have Jewish friends, acquaintances, and neighbors again. We see that as an enormous proof of trust – and as a sign of forgiveness.

I also see your kind invitation for me to speak to you today as a sign of friendship, hope, and an enormous proof of trust in my country.

It is an honor for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We will live up to this trust in the knowledge of the past and with the will to shape a more humane future.

Working together on that is our common challenge.

Thank you.