UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon equated genocidal anti-Semitism and Islamophobia with the Middle East conflict, as he used his keynote speech at a New York synagogue’s commemoration of the UN’s International Holocaust Memorial Day to express his fears of “a whole generation of young people on both sides who risk growing up with a demonized, dehumanized – and utterly false – concept of their neighbours”.
Addressing worshipers at a special service at the Park East synagogue in New York City in the presence of Holocaust survivors and members of the Diplomatic Corps Saturday, he added that Israelis and Palestinians alike “need to be educated to co-exist peacefully with their neighbours”. “The only way to build peace is to build bridges and break down walls. Doing so will take courage, but it must be done,” he concluded.
Continuing on to more traditional themes, he said that in order for genocide to succeed it not only takes a perverted ideology and meticulous organisation, but it also “takes many people – from leaders to ordinary citizens – to participate, cooperate or simply turn a blind eye”. “This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of genocide – and the reason why we must be ever vigilant,” he cautioned.
Reflecting on the theme of this year’s UN-sponsored international commemorative day. that of the courage ordinary righteous gentiles, Ban said: “Some, like Raoul Wallenberg, are household names. But most are unsung heroes – brave men and women from all walks of life, and many nations… their example is as relevant today as ever.”
“In a world where extremist acts of violence and hatred capture the headlines on an almost daily basis, we need to take inspiration from these ordinary people who took extraordinary steps to defend human dignity,” he continued.
Saturday’s event marked the first in a series of scheduled memorials ahead of the official commemoration on January 25, which will see the Holocaust and UN Outreach Programme stage a range of exhibits, film screenings, educational activities and an official memorial ceremony that will this year honour the individual acts of rescue of Jewish, Roma, Sinti and other minority victims of the Holocaust.
Speaking more expansively of genocide and its far-reaching impact on modern societies, Ban passionately invoked the international community’s “duty to act”, as he insisted “the responsibility to protect applies everywhere and all the time”. ""It has been implemented with success in a number of places, including in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. But today it faces a great test in Syria,” he warned as he revealed his greatest concerns for the civil-war stricken country were reserved for “what may come next”.
“Each day’s delay in resolving the crisis raises the spectre of the violence spreading along religious and ethnic lines. Each day’s delay sees new atrocities by both sides,” Ban said.
“It is essential that all perpetrators of international crimes understand that they will be held to account,” he stated. “There will be no amnesties for those most responsible. The old era of impunity is ending. In its place, slowly but surely, we are building a new age of accountability. But the important thing is to end the violence in Syria – now – and begin the process of transition,” he concluded.
While the term Holocaust victims generally refers to Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior (Untermenschen), undesirable or dangerous. In addition to Jews, the targeted groups included Poles (of whom 2.5 million gentile Poles were killed) and some other Slavic peoples; Soviets (particularly prisoners of war); Romanies (also known as Gypsies) and others who did not belong to the “Aryan race"; the mentally ill, the deaf, the physically disabled and mentally retarded; homosexual and transsexual people; political opponents such as social democrats and socialists; and religious dissidents, i.e. members of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Catholics.
Taking into account all of the victims of Nazi persecution, they systematically killed an estimated six million Jews and mass murdered an additional eleven million people during the war.