Ceremonial Opening

26 January 2000

Honoured participants,
History continues to be full of silent stones, of mute knowledge. We must not tire in our quest to try to make them talk to us. We must not turn a deaf ear to the story of Tana, or the stories told by those of you who survived.

Learning the lessons of the past is a task without end. There will always be a new generation to win over to knowledge, democracy and human dignity.

The question is no longer if. The question is how.

Never before have so many political leaders and public representatives from so many countries gathered to highlight this question. Never before has the will to share responsibility been so great. Never before has there been such a common sense of purpose.

It is the end of silence and the beginning of a new millennium."

Mr. Goran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden

"For this special occasion, I have brought along two stones. You won't be able to see them very clearly, but let me describe them.

The first is a smooth, polished stone from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Engraved on it, one word: remember.

It is a reminder, but also an exhortation.

Try to see. Try to understand. Don't forget."

Remember, because to forget would be to betray those who died and those who survived. It would be to betray the deeds of Raoul Wallenberg and all the others who risked their own lives to save the lives of others. It would be a deadly betrayal of the generations to come.

The second stone is rough and sharp. It bears no inscription. It could be any old stone, but it isn't. A friend of mine picked it up near some rusty rail tracks outside the small town of Izbica in south-east Poland.

If this stone could talk it would tell of the thousands and thousands of people, trapped in cattle cars, who once rolled over it. It would tell of the transit camp a stone's throw away - an enclosed nothingness, a death's waiting room for those whose final destination was Sobibor or Belzec. It would tell the story of Izbica and how nine-tenths of its inhabitants were murdered merely because they were Jews.

But stones can't talk. They can only talk to us if we know. They can only talk to us if we are prepared to listen.

Confronted with the unspeakable horrors and the grim dilemmas of the Holocaust, we can always turn our back We can literally throw the stone away. We can always choose the easy way.

But my point is this: in a moral sense, we don't have that choice.

Mr. Elie Wiesel, Honorary Chairman

"The Auschwitz-experience is singular in that it forces the human being of this new century to confront his or her memory and make it either a burden or a privilege. Pushed to the extreme limits, and perhaps beyond, of his or her possibilities, anyone entering the memory of those who remember Auschwitz will have to confront it with humility.

Thus there is much fear and sadness waiting for all the participants in this very special gathering. At times their faith in man's humanity and his or her ability to attain redemption will be severely tested.

Whatever the aspect of what will remain the greatest tragedy in recorded History, all our efforts to comprehend its possible meaning may be reduced to a simple question: will our past become our children's future?"

"So what is to be done now? The Prime Minister and I, as Chairman and Honorary Chairman of this conference, have discussed a project yesterday - and here it is.

Whereas this forum, or organized at the initiative of Prime Minister Göran Persson of Sweden has elicited such an enthusiastic response from so many men and women, representing so many countries, united by a common quest for memory; and Commitment to the education of our youth so that they learn the lessons from our past is our goal;

Whereas today's noble and inspiring endeavour deserves not to remain a simple episode, but a beginning. However beginnings need to have their own future. In other words our beginning requires a worthy continuation. You have done so much already. It is only natural for us to expect more.

As the Honorary Chairman of this conference, I appeal to you, our chairman to make it an annual event to be called The Stockholm Forum on Conscience and Humanity.

This would be a suitable way of thanking and honoring those who came from so far to share their experience, their fears and above all their hopes."

Professor Yehuda Bauer, Senior Academic Adviser

"We don't live in abstractions. All historical events are concrete, specific, particular. It is precisely the fact that it happened to a particular group of people that makes it of universal importance, because all group hatred is always directed against specific groups, for specific reasons, in specific circumstances. Do you want to begin the good fight against these evils? Don't go out into the streets with placards saying 'we are against evil'; if you do you will, quite rightly, be laughed out of court. Evil is always concrete, specific. If you want to teach about it, teach specifics, with actual cases of real people."

"Permit me, then, my friends, to repeat here what I said two years ago in the German Bundestag. I come from a people who gave the ten commandments to the world. Time has come to strengthen them by three additional ones, which we ought to adopt and commit ourselves to: thou shall not be a perpetrator; thou shall not be a victim; and thou shall never, but never, be a bystander."

Mr. Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France

"If the echo of their voices should fade, we shall perish. These words of the poet Paul Eluard express the full extent of the duty of remembrance which has brought together here today the representatives of so many nations that paid so dearly for the greatest nightmare of the 20th century. They bear witness to our determination to ensure that neither the cries of the victims nor the words of the survivors shall fade. We all share a common sentiment -- that to speak of th Holocaust means shouldering our responsibilities as human beings in the present day, and working to make the world of tomorrow more humane.

Despite the thousands of publications devoted to the 'final solution', the mystery nevertheless remains: how, in the context of European civilization, could the organized massacre of millions of human beings ever have come about? The Holocaust did not affect all of our nations in the same manner, but it has left its mark on all. Today, every nation has a duty to examine its past in a spirit of lucidity - lucidity, the courage of the intellect. Such courage is necessary if we are to understand the lesson of history."

Mr. Robin Cook, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the U.K.

"This is a fitting date for another reason. This week's set reading from the torah in all Jewish households is of the 10 Commandments, a text which brings together both Jews and Christians around the same common moral code, a code which affirms the sanctity of human life and commands us to live in harmony with our neighbours and which also commands us that 'thou shall not bear false witness'.

The gravest form of false witness is to deny the full horror of the Holocaust. We must ensure that those who peddle that lie are exposed and defeated. The least we owe the millions of the victims of the Shoah is to be frank and honest about their fate. What has brought us together today is our resolve that never again must the events of the Holocaust be repeated. The best way we can ensure that they never again happen is to never forget their full horror.

We remember it in respect for victims of the Shoah but we do it also for ourselves. We live in societies that are democratic, free and broadly tolerant. If we want to keep them that way we must constantly educate our young people in the evil of Nazism and remind them that all of society is diminished and corroded by the poison of persecution. Ignorance is the breeding ground of suspicion, hostility and racial hatred. Knowledge is our best weapon against the revival of Nazi ideas or against the rise of political parties who seek support by seeking our new scapegoats among communities of different ethnic identity."