«Remembrance: the silent cry we owe future generations»
Bern, 27.01.2014 - Bern, 27.01.2014 - Message by the President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Didier Burkhalter, on the occasion of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, Monday 27 January 2014
«Shortly after we arrived [in Auschwitz-Birkenau], we were given a postcard to send home. We were allowed to write a few reassuring words, in German. My mother and I wrote to my aunt in Budapest. The card was postmarked Waldsee.»
Gábor Hirsch discovered one of the cards that he had sent aged fifteen. He has lived for more than half a century in Switzerland and founded in the mid-1990s an association for survivors of the Holocaust living in our country. This account and the postcard have been reproduced in a series of testimonies published by this association. It was natural for the Confederation to support the publication of these eye-witness accounts, which are still so important, especially to remind young Swiss people of the events of that time and to understand them. As remembrance is a silent cry we owe future generations.
Nearly seventy years ago, hundreds of thousands Jews from Hungary were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in front of the whole world’s very eyes. Nonetheless, the Nazis and their collaborators tried to hide their crimes and cover their tracks as they pursued this policy. Anyone reading the inoffensive postcard written from ‘Waldsee’ might think that Gábor Hirsch had never been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, or that the extermination camps had never existed.
Yet there are still some today who deny the extent of the Holocaust, or even the very fact that it took place, just as they deny the extent of the other crimes committed by the Nazis and of other genocides. It is our duty to reject this attitude and to counter it by reminding people of the facts, of the historical reality and the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. We must do this each time it is necessary and not only on this International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Switzerland and other countries do not want to just play lip service to this, but to take concrete action.
The younger generation is involved at the heart of concrete and fundamental action: education. In Switzerland, especially at the moment, numerous schools and teachers are working to raise young people’s awareness of the history of the Holocaust and the dangers of xenophobia and racism, and more generally of how important it is to respect human rights. I would like to encourage them to continue with this vital work.
Another thing we can do is to ensure that the historical places and memories are preserved - the survivors’ accounts and the places in which these unimaginable crimes were committed. For this reason, tomorrow I am going to the former camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau to pay my respect and remember on behalf of Switzerland. I will be accompanied by a young Swiss woman, the granddaughter of a survivor from Auschwitz. She will represent the younger generation, to underline the importance of remembrance – now and in future.
We face considerable challenges in maintaining the former extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Switzerland, wishing to join in with the international efforts to preserve the site for future generations, has decided last year to donate over 1.2 million Swiss francs (1 million Euros).
This is an essential project, for in the words of another survivor, Elie Wiesel: «Where else can we say to the world "Remember the morality of the human condition," if not here? [...] For the sake of our children, we must remember Birkenau, so that it does not become their future.»
Didier Burkhalter
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