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.
“It is deeply upsetting to see photographs of Holocaust survivors vandalised in Vienna for the third time. The IHRA condemns this hateful act of antisemitism and contempt for the victims of Nazism. We will continue to work with the governments of our 32 member countries to counter antisemitism and protect and preserve the memory of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.”
Dr Kathrin Meyer
IHRA Executive Secretary
The text of Alabama’s bill on abortion (HB 314) compares abortion to the Holocaust, among other genocides and mass atrocity crimes.
“The comparison made between abortion and the Holocaust is abhorrent. The suggestion is offensive and trivializes the Holocaust, offending the memory of Holocaust victims and survivors. These two matters are in no way related and to seek to make this comparison for political purposes is completely unacceptable.”
Dr Kathrin Meyer
IHRA Executive Secretary
“As the Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, it was with deep shock and sadness that I learned of the shooting at the Chabad of Poway Synagogue in San Diego on 27 April, on the final day of Passover. In the name of all 32 Member Countries of the IHRA, I express sincere condolences to the families and friends of Lori Gilbert-Kaye who was killed in the attack and our thoughts and sympathies are with Rabbi Goldstein, Noya Dahan and Almog Peretz who were wounded. We stand with the Jewish community in San Diego County.
With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils. Six months after the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the IHRA condemns this antisemitic hate crime and calls on all political, social and religious leaders on the national and local level to speak out against hate speech, to ensure the security of their communities, and to support social and educational efforts to address all forms of antisemitism.”
Ambassador Georges Santer
IHRA Chair
Dr. Kathrin Meyer, IHRA Executive Secretary comments:
“Competing in a uniform made to resemble concentration camp prisoners and subsequently being nominated for “Best Costume” of the year is deeply offensive to Holocaust victims, survivors and their families. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) works tirelessly to counter Holocaust distortion and our working definition makes clear that portraying the Holocaust positively is unacceptable.
We deeply regret that we are witnessing such incidents of distortion on an alarmingly regular basis. While we appreciate that The International Skating Union has reversed its decision and apologised, they must guarantee, alongside all sports governing bodies, this is never repeated.”
“We, the undersigned chairs and recent chairs of expert working groups and committees of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), express our grave concern about the decision of the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Lithuania to justify the wartime actions taken by Jonas Noreika in relation to the Jews of that country. The text issued by the Center on 27 March, 2019, is the most recent of a series of attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Noreika, a man, documentary sources indicate, with a key role in the ghettoization and expropriation of property of Jews in Siauliai district in 1941.
As others have pointed out, the Center’s statement contains a number of paradoxes, including claims that Lithuania at once resisted the Nazis but saw in the Third Reich an ally against the Soviet Union. It also notes Noreika’s role in the ghettoization of the Jews of Siauiai but suggests that this is not indicative of complicity in the Holocaust. It makes the largely unprovable claim that there were fewer collaborators in Lithuania than in other nations occupied by Nazi Germany. More troubling, the Center’s document strongly suggests that Noreika was an active rescuer of Jews by noting his association with meritorious individual rescuers while being unable to provide evidence of his direct role in any of their efforts. It is true that Noreika later engaged in Lithuania’s anti-Soviet resistance, and the Center’s text makes note that Noreika denied under Soviet interrogation any collaboration with the Nazis, but this does not prove innocence during the Holocaust years.
The IHRA Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion identifies attempts to “excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany” as tantamount to distortion of the Holocaust. We therefore urge the government of Lithuania and the Center to acknowledge and condemn the activities of Jonas Noreika during the German occupation of Lithuania, and we invite them to engage in open dialogue and joint research with other international experts in the future.”
Ambassador Georges Santer, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Honorary Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Dr. Wichert ten Have, Advisor to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Deborah Dwork, PhD (Chair, Academic Working Group)
Marc van Berkel, PhD (Chair, Education Working Group)
Olivia Marks-Woldman (Chair, Committee on the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity)
Oliver von Mengersen (Chair, Committee on the Genocide of the Roma)
Christian Wee (Chair, Memorials and Museums Working Group)
Robert J. Williams, PhD (Chair, Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial)
Alicja Białecka (former chair, Memorials and Museums Working Group)
Martina Maschke (former chair, Committee on the Genocide of the Roma)
Klaus Mueller, PhD (former chair, Committee on the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity)
Felicia Waldman, PhD (former chair, Education Working Group)
Mark Weitzman (former chair, Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial)
Dr. Kathrin Meyer, IHRA Executive Secretary, comments:
“The sale of Auschwitz-themed Christmas decorations can be interpreted as casting the Holocaust as a positive historical event and is deeply offensive to Holocaust victims, survivors and their families.
The IHRA works tirelessly to counter Holocaust distortion and our Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion makes clear that portraying the Holocaust positively is unacceptable. While we appreciate that Amazon has removed these items, they must ensure future episodes of this nature do not occur.”
“On behalf of the experts of the Academic Working Group of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, we express our grave concern about the recent disruption of the international symposium held in Paris from 21-22 February, entitled “The New Polish School of Historical Research on the Shoah”. An organized, appointed group of Polish Nationalists aimed to interrupt the debate and they harassed the speakers. Publicly voiced antisemitic remarks have been reported to the public prosecutor.
We commend the swift reaction of Dr. Jerzy Duszyński, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and stand with the Academy and our Polish colleagues in championing the right to academic freedom. We also appreciate the intervention of the French government with Polish authorities, defending uncensored academic discussion. We abjure the hate speech applauding the incident that circulated on social and public media and we support the statement issued by the organizers condemning threats against and intimidation of researchers. We offer the organizers and all researchers our full support.
The IHRA welcomes efforts to throw light on the still obscured shadows of the Holocaust and calls on the political leaders of our 32 Member Countries to commit to the IHRA’s priority theme “Safeguarding the Record and Countering Distortion” and to speak out against all efforts and attempts to suppress or undermine historical research.”
Ambassador Georges Santer
IHRA Chair
Professor Yehuda Bauer
Honorary Chairman of the IHRA
Dr. Wichert ten Have
Advisor to the IHRA
Dr. Dominique Trimbur
Dr. Deborah Dwork
Dr. Daniel Gerson
Past, current and future chairs of IHRA’s Academic Working Group
“As current and incoming Chairs of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, we warmly welcome the Holy See’s decision to open the Pius XII Archives. The IHRA has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Holy See and had the honour of holding a joint conference focusing on refugee policies from 1933 to the present day in February 2017. We very much appreciate the constructive talks we had in the past with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States, and in October 2018 with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and we are delighted to see such a fruitful outcome. We look forward to continuing to work with the Holy See on this important issue, which contributes directly to safeguarding the historical record of the Holocaust.”
Ambassador Sandro De Bernardin and Ambassador Georges Santer
The Holy See was represented at the International Stockholm Forum on the Holocaust in 2000.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance unites governments and experts to strengthen, advance, and promote Holocaust education, remembrance, and research worldwide and to uphold the commitments of the 2000 Stockholm Declaration.
