We regularly comment on current events that overlap with the IHRA's mandate. Statements can come from the IHRA Chair, IHRA Secretary General, or, when consensus is reached among all Member Countries, by the IHRA in the form of an IHRA Statement.
On behalf of the delegates of the 31 member countries of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), among them 24 members of the European Union, I would like to express my deep concern with the European Commission’s proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation.
Ensuring open access to and the protection of Holocaust-era archival materials are at the heart of IHRA’s mission and are central to the commitments of 46 countries to the Stockholm Declaration on the Holocaust of 2000.
Although IHRA supports the European Commission’s efforts to ensure uniform protection of personal data online and offline to benefit citizens and business, IHRA believes that the provisions of the newly-created “right to oblivion” may have devastating effects on historiography in general and commemoration in particular. The current form of the proposed General Data Protection Regulation risks making it very difficult, if not impossible, to undertake research on individual victims, perpetrators and bystanders in the Holocaust and to use archival materials in Holocaust education and remembrance.
IHRA is concerned that the European Commission’s initiative could lead to the closing of archives or the destruction of personal information on Nazi victims and perpetrators, without which education, remembrance and research on the Holocaust will not be possible. It is a moral duty to preserve these authentic records for future generations.
As such, IHRA believes that the proposed regulation should contain only general provisions that acknowledge the need to balance the fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data with other legitimate public or national interests. It is of the utmost importance to Holocaust remembrance that the “right to be forgotten” should not entail the anonymization or destruction of Holocaust-era archival material.
IHRA is seeking high-level consultations with officials in Brussels to address this issue.
The Belgian Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is deeply shocked by the parade of a fake Nazi railcar during the Aalst Carnival.
The representation of the float with officers drinking champagne and stereotyping a Jewish victim is a despicable act insulting the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
Especially during the year of the Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, when Belgium has recognized the responsibility of the State in the deportation of the Jewish citizens by the Nazi occupiers and their collaborators, the Holocaust must not be trivialized for the purposes of a local political situation.
The Chair of IHRA strongly condemns the belittling of the Holocaust and the use of antisemitic stereotypes.
As Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, I would like to express my appreciation for the European Union’s placement of 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on its official calendar.
Remembrance is at the core of IHRA’s mandate, and the Stockholm Declaration commits all member countries “commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honour those who stood against it.”
All 31 IHRA member countries, including the 23 that are also EU member states, reflect this commitment by holding annual national commemorations on 27 January.
The IHRA’s focus on Holocaust Memorial Days encompasses several activities. The IHRA’s Grant Strategy includes a program encouraging applicants to develop strategies for Holocaust Memorial Days in a way that injects substance, real meaning, and educational value into these events. The IHRA has also devoted a part of its new multi-year work plan to this topic.
The IHRA will continue its efforts to promote meaningful and content-rich Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations around the world and stands ready to cooperate with the EU and other international institutions in this regard.
As the Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) and on behalf of its members, I am deeply shocked by the attack today at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, France in which four people were killed, including three children.
We strongly condemn this criminal act and would like to express our sincere sympathies to the Jewish community of Toulouse and to the families of those killed as they mourn the loss of these victims.
IHRA Chair
The ITF (now IHRA) Chair has become aware that United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) representatives have come under criticism for teaching the Holocaust in UNRWA schools.
The 28 member countries of the ITF are committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust and to encouraging Holocaust education in all schools, universities, institutions, and communities. The General Assembly of the United Nations also adopted a resolution in 2005 affirming the importance of Holocaust remembrance and rejecting any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event. Echoing its 2009 statement on this issue, the ITF fully supports the important work of UNRWA and highly commends their efforts in the field of Holocaust education in Gaza.
As the Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF, now IHRA), I join the Lithuanian Prime Minister in strongly condemning the vandalism of the memorial to the victims of Nazism at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania on 11 April.
This act is especially shameful due to the fact that Lithuania’s Parliament (Seimas) declared 2011 as the Year of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Such horrible acts of vandalism try to diminish both the memory of the victims and the meaning of the Holocaust for future generations, something that the ITF’s 28 member countries are committed to upholding.
Emanuelis Zingeris, Chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has also issued a statement.
As the Chair of an organization dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust and the victims of genocide during the Second World War, I am deeply troubled to see the Roma subjected to racial prejudice, hate crimes, expulsions, and even in some cases murder.
I condemn these practices and call on all governments to protect the rights of this vulnerable minority, whose communities still suffer from their persecution and genocide under Nazi rule.
In December 2009, ITF (now IHRA) Member Countries unanimously pledged to “prevent discrimination against the Roma and protect the Roma communities”, and with that I urge us all to continue such efforts and to defend the civil and human rights of the Roma in the countries in which they live.
It has come to my attention that a foundation linked to the Iranian regime has recently launched a website in English, Arabic and Farsi, dedicated to disseminating Holocaust denial propaganda and antisemitic imagery to an international audience.
The website promotes the idea that the Holocaust is a myth fabricated to advance the interests of the Jews and the State of Israel. Through crude cartoons and pseudo-historical statements it depicts Jews as murderers and money-worshipers.
The Iranian government has a history of vocal Holocaust denial and antisemitism. The ITF (now IHRA) issued a statement against the caricature contest held by the Iranian government in 2006 intending to ridicule the Holocaust. In 2009, the ITF Chair from Norway condemned the antisemitic hate speech propagated by the Iranian President.
Now, as the ITF Chair for 2010, I am also compelled to condemn, in the strongest terms, this latest incitement to Holocaust denial intended to spread vile antisemitic propaganda over the Internet.
