Have the lessons of the Holocaust been learned?
For us, The Jewish people, the answer is yes.
For the rest of the world, the answer is no, or at least not yet.
Today, 66 years after the horror, we are here, in Jerusalem, the
eternal capital of our nation. We, the representatives of the Jewish
nation, are holding a special ceremony to mark the International
Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The lesson that we have learned, first of all, is that we are here, in
our sovereign country, in our capital city.
We have learned another important lesson, probably the most crucial
lesson to be learned from the atrocity, from the chain of atrocities
that brought about one much worse; this has continued for hundreds and
thousands of years, since we lost our country and our sovereignty, and
since we lost our capability to defend ourselves. The lesson learned
was that we had to restore the capacity of the State and the army for
self-defense.
This lesson was understood by Herzl even before the great atrocity
took place. He foresaw it, and we implemented it.
But there is one other lesson. At the end of the Holocaust, there were
11 million Jews in the world. Before it, there were 18 million.
Even at a very slow rate of natural increase of the population, there
should have been almost 30 million Jews in the world, but in fact,
there are only 13.5 million; much less, half of what there should be.
This did not happen by physical loss; it happened because of
assimilation and the loss of identity.
The only place where the Jewish people has grown is here, in Eretz
Yisrael, in the State of Israel. We have continuous substantial and
blessed growth. There is no nation that could live on a demographic
pin head. Therefore, while cultivating our country, we must continue
to encourage aliyah, bringing Jewish people to Israel, and to prevent
their assimilation abroad. All the projects that we operate –
Birthright, Masa and also Moreshet – are aimed at our young adults and
also young Jews abroad. They are essential elements in assuring our
future.
Have we learned the lesson? The answer is yes. Has the world learned
the lesson? Well, I think one thing is clear: the fact that global
anti-Semitism is renewing and expanding is obvious. If anyone thought
that Anti-Semitism stopped after World War II and the Holocaust, it is
now evident that it was only a hiatus. The same forces that you
mentioned joining together, share a new/old anti-Semitism with the
world, and so we must fight it, globally too. For that, I congratulate
my friend Silvan Shalom, who, when serving as Foreign Minister,
brought about an important United Nations resolution – marking this
day, a resolution which was adopted by the UN.
This resolution is indeed implemented in many countries, which is an
important achievement and in many ways also unique, at least in the
ability to propose an Israeli draft resolution to this organization,
which I am well familiar with, I spent a long time there. It was a
milestone. But I still ask: does the world that condemns that
anti-Semitism also condemn this anti-Semitism?
Every now and then, very feebly – it isn’t just anti-Semitism; it is
the regime – a member country of the UN, the regime of ayatollahs –
stands up and knowingly and openly calls for the annihilation of at
least another six million Jews, without even a hint of pretense. And
nobody says a thing. Well, that’s not exact. Here and there a comment
might be heard, but where is the anger, the outrage? Where is the
outcry? Where is the "J’accuse?" I’m not asking about us. We are
here; we’ve learned our lessons. But where is the global uproar that
should have risen from advanced communities around the world in
response to explicit declarations of genocide, of exterminating a
people, that same people!
We must be honest with each other. Diplomacy is, first and foremost,
identifying the situation as it is. If we want to change it, we must
understand it. And we have a very disturbing historical phenomenon. I
don’t think that it is only hard for us, but for all civilized people,
all civilized peoples, who allow such an affliction, such statements,
such savagery, barbarism and primitivism to be uttered and spread. It
is said; it spreads, becomes acceptable, commonplace, and always
prepares the ground for the next action and also prevents those
actions that will not take place.
I am aware that there are many leaders and good-hearted, conscientious
people around the world. I know that they think what I think. I know
that in their hearts, they tell themselves what I am saying today from
this podium.
However, that will not suffice. Because in the face of this regime,
that calls for our annihilation, and arms itself with weapons of mass
destruction in order to fulfill its nefarious intentions, there should
be a much stronger protest. This makes me somewhat disheartened, my
friend Silvan.
I was in that institution, I served in it as the representative of
Israel. One day I heard that there were rumors about a file about
Waldheim, who was then President of Austria. It might have been the
Secretary-General of the UN. The Secretary-General said he had a
profile about a war criminal in some UN archive.
What was this archive? It turned out that there was a war-criminal
archive instituted by Churchill and the Allies during the war to
collect material against Nazi criminals and their collaborators. They
gathered the information, and listened and discussed and prepared the
files and at the end of the war they took these files, brought them to
the UN, and locked them in the basement, where they just lay for
decades.
I asked if I could go in there, and they said "no." I asked why, and
was told that I needed the consent of all the allied countries, 18 or
19 countries, I think, and there was no such approval. Well, it took
me a year until I got the okay and was taken to the archive.
It wasn’t exactly in the basement, it was on the first floor of a UN
building somewhere in New York. I walk in and see boxes upon boxes; I
go to ‘W,’ pull out the box: Waldheim, Kurt, and various notes. My
hair stood on end (I had more hair then). Horrible things, lying
there, hidden for dozens of years. I look at the next file (I didn’t
start taking boxes out, it was the same box): Birkenau 1944, records
of exterminations, the death marches, trains, the S.S., it’s all
documented. 1944, but I think I also saw files that referred to 1943.
My friends, these 18 countries, perhaps the best statesmen in history,
distinguished men, truly great men – they knew. They knew in real
time, and not from this particular testimony that I have just
mentioned. There are plenty of testimonies: terrible things that are
very hard to read. They knew, but they did not act.
Why did they not act? Because they were busy fighting the major battle
against the Nazis, which was their main concern. But how hard would it
have been to bomb the railway tracks leading to the death camps? When
you go there, and many of you have been there – I was there with some
of you, several times – you see they could have bombed the camps. They
were already bombing that awful chemical plant only seconds away. They
would only have needed to tilt the plane a bit and could also have
bombed the ramp and two incinerators, and the tracks. It wouldn’t have
made the slightest difference to their war effort. They knew and they
did nothing.
Today they are very aware of it. They know, they hear, they see, they
photograph. You don’t need special intelligence, you only need to turn
on the television, hear the news, read the newspaper. Will they act?
Will they talk? Will they really talk? Will they attack? Will they
condemn?
The Iranians say that it’s against the Zionists, anti-Zionism. It was
Martin Luther King who burst that bubble better than anyone else. He
said, and I quote: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews.
You’re talking anti-Semintism!"
Martin Luther King. That’s right. So that’s what the Iranians say. But
this is the truth. It is not only a threat against us, because it
always begins with the Jews but never ends with the Jews. The hatred
of Jews kindles an overall fire, and I expect that on this day, when I
applaud the world for marking the most heinous crime in world history
and the history of our people which was perpetrated against our people
– I hope others will also learn the lesson. We already have.
I expect the world to learn the lesson and start fighting in words and
in deeds against the new anti-Semitism. That is what I expect and I am
certain, my friends, that you expect the same.