Leaders Remembering the Shoah
World leaders gather in Sweden to remember the Shoah
By Mordecai Specktor, The American Jewish World
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – "The evil view of humanity that made the Holocaust possible did not just cease to exist at the end of the Second World War," Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson told those filling the Great Synagogue of Stockholm for a memorial service last week.
"The ideology of hatred and xenophobia forms the basis for new political parties that are now exploiting the democratic system to gain power. We can see it happening in Sweden. We can see it happening all over Europe."
The disturbing rise of neo-Nazism, even in the placid Scandinavian societies, noted by the Swedish premier lent urgency to the discussions at an unprecedented gathering of government leaders and scholars from 47 countries that met Jan. 26-28 in the Swedish capital.
The Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, a conference on "education, remembrance and research" under the auspices of the Swedish government, attracted 22 heads of state and government to Stockholm. It was the largest gathering of top-level leaders in Sweden since the 1986 funeral of Olof Palme, the popular prime minister who was assassinated in Stockholm.
The conference consisted of panel discussions and workshops featuring leading Holocaust educators from around the world. On Jan. 26 there was a ceremony honoring Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Jews in Budapest, Hungary in the closing days of World War II.
The elaborately produced formal opening ceremony blended music, readings and speeches by Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson; Nobel Peace Laureate, Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel; Yehuda Bauer of Yad Vashem; Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany; Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland; and President Václav Havel of the Czech Republic.
There were plenary sessions where leaders of national delegations, Shoah survivors and experts delivered short speeches; a cultural program in Stadtshuset, the Stockholm city hall. A remembrance ceremony in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, marked the 55th anniversary on Jan. 27 of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, as did a memorial ceremony that evening in the Great Synagogue of Stockholm. A plenary session and more speeches closed the conference, and in a wrap-up press conference, Prime Minister Persson and Yehuda Bauer reflected on the whirlwind three-day forum and answered reporters' questions.
The Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust pledged to continue education, remembrance and research activities related to the Shoah. Participants went on record to establish "an annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance" in their respective countries — during the conference, Sweden and the United Kingdom announced that Jan. 27 would serve as their annual commemorative day.
The conference's final declaration included a call to open national archives "to ensure that all documents bearing on the Holocaust are available to researchers."
The philosophical declaration concluded with the "commitment to plant the seeds of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past. We empathize with the victims' suffering and draw inspiration from their struggle. Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity's common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice."
Sweden calls out the troops
To protect the visiting dignitaries the city was turned upside down as a massive security force — 4,000 police officers from Stockholm, and others brought in from Gothenburg and Malmö — cordoned off streets for blocks in all directions around Folkets Hus (The People's House) conference center, the Grand Hotel where the political leaders bunked, and other venues.
Conference participants were issued ID badges that allowed passage through police barricades. Before entering Folkets Hus, attendees put their bags through airport-style x-ray machines and walked through metal detectors under the watchful eyes of police staffing a security tent checkpoint outside the building. Another similar security checkpoint installed at the building's front door also had to be negotiated. Machine-gun toting members of a special anti-terrorism unit augmented the ubiquitous police presence in central Stockholm.
The forum's opening ceremony began with the entrance of the Swedish royals, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. They were ushered into the Congress Hall of Folkets Hus by the conference chair, Prime Minister Persson, who led off with welcoming remarks. Elie Wiesel, the honorary chair of the conference, followed him.
"In search of meaning and even hope, this gathering of statesmen, scholars, teachers, historians and witnesses will explore the origins and the fallout of an unprecedented tragedy and its consequences, all moved by a deep compassion for the victims and the teaching we could receive from their lives and their agonizing death," said Wiesel. "The task is urgent, the approach difficult. The key word is 'memory.'"
'Living History' takes off
The challenge of keeping alive the memory of the Shoah was pondered last week in Stockholm by some 400 Holocaust educators and the scores of political leaders. Speakers discussed how to engage the next generation, and succeeding generations of children, in extracting lessons from the history of the Holocaust, so as to prevent the next Holocaust and lesser genocides from taking place.
In the case of Sweden, what was perceived as the vague knowledge of the Shoah in the minds of many school children, as revealed in a 1997 opinion poll, prompted Prime Minister Persson to launch the "Living History" project that year. The centerpiece of the educational campaign, which sought to use the history of the Holocaust as a teaching point about the horrifying consequences of the failure of democracy, was the publication of a book.
"Tell ye your children," a concise 80-page volume covering the rise of Nazism, the Holocaust, and Sweden's role during World War II, was made available for free to families with school age children. Demand for the book was quick and overwhelming — over one million copies, in seven languages, have been distributed in Sweden.
"The idea was to spread knowledge about the Holocaust, but also to generate an active dialogue between the generations on democratic and humanistic values," the Swedish prime minister told the delegates in Stockholm. "Living History won massive support, and the response exceeded anything we could have dreamed of. The conclusion to be drawn is encouraging. People want to know, people want to discuss values and ideas, people want to learn from history. I'm sure this does not apply only to Sweden."
With the success of Living History, Sweden enlisted the governments of the U.S.A. and United Kingdom in a task force to promote Holocaust education and remembrance. The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research now has nine nations as members — Germany, Israel, Poland, The Netherlands, France and Italy have joined recently.
The task force is working to expand its membership and coordinate Holocaust education programs with other countries. The head of the U.S. delegation to Stockholm, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Stuart E. Eizenstat, stated that Argentina, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and, perhaps, Romania, "will join the Czech Republic in building a relationship with the task force by joint liaison projects for Holocaust education and remembrance."
As Yehuda Bauer of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, who served as academic adviser for the conference, noted in his speech at the opening ceremony, interest in the Holocaust is "snow-balling, 55 years after the end of World War II."
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, for example, mentioned that, in cooperation with the Swedish government, the Holocaust history "Tell ye your children" has been translated into Latvian. Even in Japan, a Holocaust memorial is being planned.
Austria and Haider
While participants in the Stockholm conference grappled with the overarching themes from the Shoah, the unfolding political developments in Austria lent a topical dimension.
Specifically, the European Community representatives danced around the question of future relations with Austria should a new government be formed that includes extreme right populist politician Jörg Haider and his Freedom Party.
Haider has made some approving comments about those who served in the Waffen SS, the Nazi stormtroopers, and Third Reich labor policies. He has reportedly apologized for these remarks.
In an anticipated speech at Stadtshuset on the evening of Jan. 26, Chancellor Viktor Klima of Austria addressed the issue of Haider's character and future role. "The Holocaust is not only the worst crime of the 20th century, it is one of the most monstrous crimes in the whole history of mankind," stated the first Austrian leader born after the end of World War II.
"Anyone who does not say this clearly and unambiguously is unsuitable to be entrusted with any responsible public position, either national or international. Any such person has no role to play in political life or in government service. Any person who denies or minimizes the Holocaust does not have the basic human qualities that are a precondition for any responsible activity in politics," Klima declared in a reference to Haider.
At a press conference the previous day at Rosenbad, the Swedish premier's office, Prime Minister Ehud Barak commented, "The rise to power of an extreme right wing party in Austria is highly disturbing."
Noting that the situation in Austria was "highly relevant" to the Stockholm conference, Barak added that Israel "will not be able to ignore" an Austrian government including Haider's Freedom Party.
Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said Israel should withdraw its ambassador from Vienna in the event that Haider joins the government.
"We cannot accept such a phenomenon as Haider, even if — heaven forbid — the entire world does," Beilin told Israel Radio.
Klima, a Social Democrat, has tried for months to form a government with the center-right Peoples Party, but talks have broken down. Wolfgang Schuessel, leader of the Peoples Party, has assured European Union (EU) leaders that he would be in control, and would be able to muzzle Haider, if a coalition government is formed between the Freedom Party and the Peoples Party.
Also, earlier this week, Prime Minister Antonio Guterres of Portugal, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said that the EU would impose punitive measures against Austria if Haider became part of the government. Such measures would include a freeze on bilateral relations with Austria, withdrawing support for Austrian candidates for international positions, and limiting the role of Austria's ambassadors in EU countries.
In Wallenberg's shadow
Hovering over the proceedings in Stockholm was the spirit of Raoul Wallenberg, who courageously saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the clutches of the Nazis, then got into a black sedan on Jan. 17, 1945 and disappeared forever into the Soviet Gulag. Wallenberg's name was invoked frequently throughout the conference as an example of a Swede who was not neutral, who was never a bystander.
At an opening ceremony sponsored by the World Jewish Congress on the evening of Jan. 25 in Stockholm's Great Synagogue, Rabbi Michael Melchior, Israeli Cabinet Minister for Israeli Society and the World Jewish Community, told those assembled in the sanctuary that Wallenberg was "the greatest Swede ever, the hero of the 20th century."
Melchior, whose official ministerial duties include combating racial hatred and anti-Semitism, discussed the rise of neo-Nazism across Europe and the lessons to be gleaned from the Shoah.
Melchior, whose family was rescued in the October 1943 boatlift of Danish Jews to Sweden, noted that extremist attacks often begin with the Jews as targets, "but they end with undermining all decency, all laws and freedom."
The World Jewish Congress chose to hold its executive committee sessions in Stockholm to coincide with the Holocaust conference. In 1959, the international group, which is involved in Holocaust-era asset restitution issues, held its meeting in the old Swedish parliament building.
During the opening ceremony last week in the Stockholm synagogue, WJC President Edgar Bronfman presented the group's Human Rights Award to Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg's sister, Nina Lagergren, accepted the award and spoke briefly about her brother.
Lagergren talked about her brother's capture by the Soviets in Budapest, and the many honors he has received in the intervening years, including being given honorary citizenship by the United States.
"But we are still here and don't have an answer" about his ultimate fate, said Lagergren. "Help us to get the Russians to give us an answer."
Lagergren urged the creation of "Raoul Wallenberg schools…where children will learn what one man can do."
In a remark that was quoted in Swedish newspapers the following day, Elie Wiesel praised Prime Minister Persson for his initiatives in Holocaust education and the sponsorship of the Holocaust conference.
"I'm not a Swede, and I don't know what your place will be in Swedish history — I hope it will be good," said Wiesel. "But your place in Jewish history will be glorious."
In his speech in the Great Synagogue, Persson referred to his comments the previous week in the Swedish parliament, when he apologized for Swedish conduct during World War II and after. Specifically, he mentioned that Swedish authorities should have known that some of the Nazi gold laundered in Sweden had been looted from Jews, and that "the matter of the unclaimed accounts in Swedish banks at the end of the war was handled ineptly and without any sense of commitment."
Persson told Swedish lawmakers: "Swedish authorities have failed in the performance of their duty.It grieves me to be forced to make such an observation. The government does so with the most profound sense of regret."
The Swedish premier also announced that the government would investigate the issue of Swedes who fought for the Nazi SS during the war, and the flight of war criminals from Nazi Germany and the Baltic states into Sweden at the end of the war. A series of TV programs shown in early January examined the issue of Swedish collaborators with the Nazis and war criminals living unmolested in post-war Sweden.
Persson noted that his nation has a statute of limitations on the prosecution of criminals, even war criminals, but that he would examine what still could be done, and make funds available for independent, expert research into the issues revolving around Swedish neutrality during World War II.
In his comments in the Riksdag, Persson pointed out that the Nazi extermination campaign "also constituted an attempt to wipe out Jewish history, culture and Jewish communities." He announced that 40 million Swedish crowns (something under $5 million) would be made available to revivify Jewish culture.
At the concluding press conference of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, Persson, in response to a question from the AJW, expressed the hope that additional funds would be donated to supplement the Swedish government money. He said that the Swedish Jewish community could use this fund however it saw fit, to support efforts in Jewish historical, cultural and identity programming.
During the memorial ceremony in the Stockholm synagogue, Persson concluded by talking about the Holocaust monument in Stockholm, which consists of 8,500 names of Shoah victims — the names provided by their living relatives residing in Sweden — chiseled into a 135-foot long wall that runs along one side of the Great Synagogue.
Persson recited some of the names inscribed on the memorial wall, and recalled that at the monument's dedication in 1998 he stood before the wall "lost for words." The mostly Jewish audience met his speech with a sustained standing ovation.
Fighting for Europe's soul
Avraham Burg, the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, also spoke during the World Jewish Congress program in the synagogue. The tall Israeli legislator said that keeping alive the memory of the Shoah "is not the responsibility of the victim only." Looking ahead to the Stockholm conference, Burg commented that Europe is doing its "cheshbon ha'nefesh, its soul searching" on its inglorious past. Sweden was praised by Burg as a "moral leader" and for creating "a new value language."
While Prime Minister Persson was lauded for his Living History initiative, some observers in Stockholm suggested that his motives are not completely selfless. Riding low in the Swedish public opinion polls, Persson became the focus of European press attention last week. In Sweden, the conference received huge press attention. (The U.S. press seems to have given the Stockholm forum short shrift, perhaps because President Clinton only appeared via videotape and not in person.)
There was the oft heard suggestion that Persson is trying to fashion an international role for himself, like that attained by the late Olof Palme, a brilliant politician who clashed with the U.S. over the Vietnam War.
Others wondered how Persson and the other political leaders would translate their words into actions, with an imminent test being relations with an Austrian government including Jörg Haider. There were also complaints that some of the national leaders, particularly from the Baltic states, offered revisionist histories of their countries' war-time relationship with their Jewish populations, and fudged the statistics to make it appear that more Jews were saved.
Whatever happens in the aftermath of Stockholm, one is still drawn to the fact that so many top-level leaders finally came together to discuss the lessons of the Shoah.
"I think the magnitude of the conference and its message is first of all impressive because of the meeting of the minds and the experts and the educators with heads of state and people in power," Rabbi Michael Melchior told the AJW outside the Riksdag last week. "This is unique and it's the first time since the Holocaust that this has taken place and this is what we're here for."
The mystery of German barbarism this century, that an apparently civilized society, with the collusion of henchmen in other countries, could undertake the ruthless extermination of 6 million Jews — 1-1/2 million of them children — and 2 million others, is more than the human mind can fathom.
Sweden recognizes that the Shoah contains lessons yet to be extracted, in this and succeeding generations, and the failure of tolerance and democratic values again could lead Europe down the path of blood and flames.
In the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, Speaker of the Knesset Avraham Burg stood at the podium and declared, "Many years ago, John Kennedy stood before the Berlin Wall and said, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' And today, on behalf of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and on behalf of the entire Jewish people, I would like to say that for one day, for one moment of grace — a moment that my grandmother in Theresianstadt never had — I can say proudly: 'Jag är Svensk.' ('I am a Swede.')"