Address by Stuart Eizenstat
Address by Stuart E. Eizenstat, presenting Task Force Report on International Cooperation to the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, January 28, 2000
The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research has had a remarkable beginning. As President Clinton's personal representative to the Task Force, and on behalf of the Task Force as a whole, I offer you the following summary of its activities in 1999,since I reported to many of you at the Washington Conference.
Started at the initiative of Prime Minister Persson, in May 1998,the Task Force began as an effort by Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States to pace governmental support behind efforts to teach the Holocaust. Task Force membership has grown to 9 nations (with the addition of France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland) and has a number of additional requests for membership that it will be actively considering. Perhaps the most important Task Force contribution has been to propel, through diplomatic channels, Holocaust education and remembrance onto the world stage witness the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, 2628January 2000as a direct outgrowth of the excellent Task Force concept, and which was developed with Task Force support.
Our first projects included establishing a catalogue of Holocaust education and remembrance activities underway around the world and a directory of institutions involved in this work, and disseminating a set of guidelines to help advise educators of the most successful approaches to teaching these difficult issues.
At the 1998Washington Conference on Holocaust era assets, the Task Force offered two declarations, one on promoting Holocaust education and one urging archival openness, which were widely supported by the forty or so other governments attending. These declarations were included in Conference Report issued in Washington, and have been reproduced in this year's report of 28 January 2000. In addition to these declarations and resource materials, the Task Force has developed a web site with extensive and useful links, and brought together a group of devoted diplomats, historians, NGO representatives and other experts. It is engaged in a new kind of diplomacy, matching diplomats, NGOs and experts in intensive but informal actionoriented work for this important cause.
In my view and that of my government, the future of the Task Force rests on its ability to translate the experience and expertise of Task Force countries into action to assist other countries to develop or upgrade Holocaust education and remembrance in their societies. This work has already begun. In June, the Task Force decided to undertake "liaison projects" with countries that either have not yet developed Holocaust education in their schools and communities or have done so only to a limited extent, and with others that seek to strengthen established efforts. The liaison projects represent an opportunity for countries to establish and develop a relationship with the Task Force. The projects will be individually tailored to the needs and desires of requesting countries in consultation with Task Force specialists, and predicated on indepth, longterm cooperation. They cover possibilities from comprehensive national education programs such as Sweden's Living History project, to teacher training, curriculum development, and so on.
On behalf of the Task Force, I commend the Czech Republic for being the first nonmember to draw upon Task Force resources. Last summer, President Havel invited the Task Force to participate in October's Phenomenon Holocaust conference in Prague. The Task Force was asked to provide a comparative presentation on how the Holocaust is taught in various of its countries. To do so, the Task Force took Czech teachers, experts and education authorities to training sessions and education/remembrance institutions in the U.S., Israel and the Netherlands. Those who participated described to the Prague conference what they saw, but more importantly took home with them innovative techniques for use in the Czech Republic. The end result was a decision to have the Task Force conduct teacher training in the Czech Republic for a core of teachers who will themselves become trainers. We hope the Czech model will be emulated by other countries and wholeheartedly welcome the announcements at this Forum by the Latvian and Bulgarian Presidents that they wish to establish liaison projects with the Task Force, and the interest in the Task Force expressed by the Prime Ministers of Lithuania and Ukraine. I would also like to report that the President of Argentina personally expressed to me his country's desire to engage in Task Force liaison projects. We look forward to welcoming them and others into the circle of Task Force cooperation.
To help support such activities, the Task Force has decided to establish an endowment fund, to which a number of countries are already considering contributing, and which the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has agreed to administer for the time being. I am pleased to report that my Government strongly supported the creation of this fund and hopes to be able to announce a contribution soon. The Task Force is also establishing an Academic subcommittee to consider how to develop chairs of Holocaust studies at institutions of higher education. And we are working to promote days of Holocaust commemoration in countries where they do not yet exist. Yesterday we learned that we will soon be able to count two new additions to countries that have commemoration days the United Kingdom and Sweden. The Task Force sincerely welcomes this development as in line with its basic objectives.
Significantly, the Task Force sponsored the International Educator's Conference at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem last October, and held its sixth meeting there. The Task Force held its seventh meeting on January 25th, chaired by Sweden, and will meet again in the spring under Germany's chairmanship. For more detailed information about possible relationships, governments and NGO's are encouraged to get in touch with the Task Force chairman.
Finally, I would like sincerely to thank Prime Minister Persson first for broadening the mandate of the Swedish Commission from the issue of stolen assets to the full question of the role Sweden played during the Second World War. And secondly, for his personal initiative in launching this Task Force. It is truly amazing what has been done in less than two years arising from his initiative. I personally look forward to the Task Force's further development, to a growing number of liaison projects and an eventual growing, membership. We are indeed making up for lost time in an effort worthy of your attention and support.