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.
As the ITF (now IHRA) Chair I am appalled by and condemn the President of Iran’s statement of 18 September 2009 denying the reality of the Holocaust. Make no mistake: Holocaust denial is not merely a radical and baseless form of historical revisionism, but a form of antisemitic hate speech. It is aimed not just at Israel or Zionism but at inciting hatred against Jews everywhere.
As the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre said in his statement following a similar instance of Holocaust denial by the Iranian President at the Durban Review Conference on 20 April 2009, “I heard the messages in the President’s speech – and they amount to just that: incitement of hatred, spreading politics of fear and promoting an indiscriminate message of intolerance.”
Such statements of Holocaust denial spread malice and ignorance; they fan the flames of antisemitism and are unworthy of the leader of the Iranian people.
**UPDATE** WIESENTHAL CENTER PRAISES INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST TASK FORCE FOR SHARP CONDEMNATION OF AHMADINEJAD’S CONTINUED HOLOCAUST DENIAL
With great concern, the ITF (now IHRA) Chair has become aware of recent statements made by members of Hamas regarding efforts of the United Nations to introduce education about the Holocaust into the Gaza school system.
The 27 member states of the Task Force are committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, which reaffirms the universal meaning of the Holocaust for all mankind and pledges to uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it.
In the same spirit, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 1 November 2005 on Holocaust remembrance, reaffirming that the Holocaust will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, and rejecting any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part.
The 2005 resolution also established a United Nations programme of outreach on the subject of the “Holocaust and the United Nations”. Since the resolution, the ITF has been in close contact and worked in cooperation with the United Nations outreach programme. The Task Force fully supports and welcomes the efforts of all UN agencies in this regard. The ITF is committed to encouraging education about the Holocaust and its meaning to children everywhere in the world in order to, in the words of the Stockholm Declaration; “plant the seeds of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past.”
The following statement is issued by the Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (formerly ITF, now IHRA), Ambassador Tom Vraalsen, in conjunction with the resolution passed by the European Parliament on 2 April 2009, determining 23 August, the date on which in 1939 the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement was signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, as a date of remembrance to victims of both regimes.
Statement of Chairman Amb. Tom Vraalsen:
Recognizing the importance of commemorating all victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in Europe during the twentieth century, the Chair of the ITF, in accordance with the above-mentioned European Parliament resolution that acknowledges the uniqueness of the Holocaust, wishes to emphasize the unprecedented character of the Holocaust as a catastrophe, which fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilization.
ITF Member States are committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, which acknowledges the need to preserve the memory of the Holocaust for future generations by promoting education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust, and by commemorating its victims.
In light of the recent growth of revisionism and of attempts to deny or diminish the reality of the Holocaust, the Chair of the ITF underscores the importance of remembering the victims of the Holocaust as well as those who stood against it, and encourages the study of the Holocaust in all its dimensions, including the acts of its perpetrators and their collaborators.
This serious matter and its implications will be further discussed by the ITF in the proceedings at its upcoming Plenary Meeting in Trondheim, Norway, on 30 November – 2 December 2009.
Finally, the ITF Chair strongly encourages everyone to observe and appropriately commemorate 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp and the day designated by the United Nations as an annual International Day of Commemoration to honor the victims of the Holocaust (UN Resolution A/RES/60/7.)
After extensive consultations, the ITF (now IHRA) Chair has authorized the ITF’s Permanent Office to transmit the following statement:
In recent weeks, certain individuals and institutions have publically questioned Norway’s suitability to chair the “Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF)”. The reason for this is Norway’s commemoration this year of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Prize winner Knut Hamsun.
The commemoration of Knut Hamsun’s birth has led to a debate about him as an acclaimed author and as a person who sympathized with the Nazi regime before and during the Second World War. The debate is understandable and welcome, but it does not in any way affect Norway’s current Chairmanship of the Task Force. Norway is firm in its commitment to the principles of the Stockholm Declaration, which form the basis of the Task Force, and is dedicated to the fight against contemporary anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance.
It is Hamsun’s literary work that is being honored. His pro-Nazi activities must continue to be condemned as they were when he was tried in Norway, convicted and punished after the war. Because of this sordid aspect of his life, Hamsun will remain a controversial figure in Norway and globally.
Task Force members have expressed not only full confidence in the Norwegian Chair, but also appreciation for the unwavering commitment of the Norwegian Chair to further the goals of the Task Force in the international public arena in the areas of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research and in the fight against anti-Semitism.
-Ambassador Tom Vraalsen, Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
The Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (formerly ITF, now IHRA) welcomes and fully supports the Yad Vashem comment (see below) regarding the Pope’s decision on Bishop Williamson’s unacceptable stance regarding the Holocaust. The Work of the ITF is based on the Declaration of 2001 of the Stockholm International Forum of the Holocaust which states inter alia: Together we must uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it. Thus, every clear stance taken against statements or attitudes amounting to the denial or trivialization of the truth of the Holocaust corresponds to the very spirit underlying the endeavors of the ITF and its 26 member countries. Yad Vashem is one of the most important institutions participating in and supporting the ITF from its very beginning.
Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff Chairman ITF
(February 5, 2009- Jerusalem) Yad Vashem welcomes the Pope’s decision to demand that Bishop Richard Williamson publicly and unambiguously recant his stance regarding the Holocaust. The Pope’s decision sends an important message that Holocaust denial and antisemitism have no place within the Church. “When the highest moral authority of the Church states that Holocaust denial is unacceptable, that is a vital message for the entire world,” noted Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev.
Final – approved 30 October, 2007
The Chair of the ITF (now IHRA), on behalf of the members of the ITF, expresses his abhorrence at the intention of neo-Nazis to demonstrate in the old Jewish Quarter of Prague on November 10, the anniversary of the „Kristallnacht“ Pogrom perpetrated by Nazi Germany in 1938. The Nazi regime and its actions have justifiably come to represent absolute evil, and any pro-Nazi demonstration must be seen as an expression of identification with that abhorrent regime and as an attempt to return Nazism to this world. The Chair and the ITF condemn all efforts to promote racism and anti-Semitism. We feel encouraged by determination of many civilian groups which will organize their own meetings to hinder neo-Nazi demonstration. The Chair calls on the Mayor of Prague and the Czech government to do all in theirs power to ensure that this demonstration will not take place and certainly not in the Jewish Quarter, in the heart of Prague.
Chair’s Declaration on Teaching about the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti
The Chair draws the attention of member countries of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research to the importance of supporting projects and of strengthening education on the fate of the Roma and Sinti during World War II.
The Holocaust Task Force, in accordance with the 2000 Stockholm Declaration on the Holocaust, focuses its activities on the Holocaust or Shoah, i.e. the genocide of the Jews perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators. In addition, the Task Force deals with other atrocities, particularly other genocidal crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and their accomplices, such as the genocide of people of Roma and Sinti origin, especially on the territory of the Reich and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, but also elsewhere. Roma and Sinti were victims of genocide in the sense of the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention.
The Czech Chair of the Holocaust Task Force encourages working groups to keep reviewing and supporting projects related to crimes against the Roma and Sinti, and commends the Education Working Group (EWG) and especially the Brno Museum of Romani Culture for working on this topic. We encourage the Education Working Group to pursue this type of activity and wethank the Shoah Memorial of Paris for accepting to provide the EWG with necessary technical support in the future.
The Chair also prompts national delegations of the Holocaust Task Force to address this issue in their countries with relevant ministries and NGO’s, and in cooperation with relevant international organizations, in particular in Central and South-Eastern Europe where discriminations against the Roma still exist.
In line with the recommendations of the Education Working Group, the Chair of the Task Force asks that member countries:
-Provide training for teachers, educators, students and museum guides on this topic
-Complete textbooks with information on the genocide of the Roma and Sinti, and that relevant pedagogical material, such as for instance Council of Europe documentation, is provided to teachers and educators
-Support research and academic publications on this issue
The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (formerly ITF, now IHRA), which consists of delegations from 24 governments, has released the following statement through its Chair:
“At the recent meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Iranian President, Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared that there is a need for an expert commission to examine the claim that there was what is known as the Holocaust (Shoah – the genocide of the Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany and its collaborators). In previous statements, the Iranian President repeatedly questioned the fact that the Holocaust happened. Moreover, the Holocaust was ridiculed in Iran by a Holocaust caricatures contest, the winner of which was recently proclaimed; he had compared Auschwitz to Israel, thus falsifying both past and present. The director of the contest declared that it would continue to take place until Israel’s doomsday.
The ITF bases its work on a declaration issued in Stockholm, on January 27, 2000, and signed by a large number of governments attending a conference on the Holocaust that took place at that time; and on the recent unanimous resolution of the United Nations (November 2005), which declared January 27 as the International Memorial Day of the Holocaust.
The above statements of the Iranian President are clearly counter-factual, and stand in stark contradiction to the unanimous view of the international community. By denying or questioning the Holocaust, the most extreme form of genocide to date, he unfortunately places himself on the side of those who, by denying obvious facts, would create a mendacious view of human history and would challenge the essence of the notion of international Human Rights, which was developed by the international community after and because of the Shoah. We are sure that these statements do not represent the view of the Iranian people.
His further statements regarding his wish for the destruction of the State of Israel, a member-state of the UN, could be understood as threatening another genocide. Such positions endanger civilization as such. The Chair of the ITF, following the wording of the above-mentioned Stockholm Declaration, voices its strong objections regarding the denial of the Holocaust in general, the statements of the Iranian President in particular, and any threat to the very life and existence of a member-state of the UN. It calls for a universal rejection of these unfortunate statements, and draws attention to the UN 1948 convention against genocide.”
