Ladies and Gentlemen,
Why do I tell you about Sarah and grandfather Isidor today, when we are gathered in Jerusalem to inaugurate the New Yad Vashem Museum? Because, like a caring grandfather, Yad Vashem stands ready to present stories like Isidor’s to us. Stories that we urgently need in order to keep history alive while shaping the future. Stories of those, like Raoul Wallenberg, who stood up for human dignity and democracy, and risked their own lives to save others. Like a loving old relative, Yad Vashem brings to life the heroes of our past, gives them names and faces, unique life stories, thoughts and deeds, fears and dreams.
Coming generations will have no grandfather who can tell the stories. They will not have the possibility to talk directly to those of you who can tell of Jewish life before the Holocaust, of the unbearable horrors of the ghettos and camps, of the suffering afterwards.
Therefore, the importance of Yad Vashem grows, and will continue to grow. Consequently Yad Vashem Museum is today renewed and enlarged.
Yad Vashem made a very strong impression on me already the first time I visited the museum. Today I am honoured to extend my personal and the Swedish Government’s congratulations to you. Yad Vashem will remain in the lead in Shoah education, commemoration, research and documentation. Yad Vashem will continue to provide essential tools in our efforts to safeguard democracy and human dignity, and to prevent history from repeating itself.
One central person at Yad Vashem has also been especially important for the Swedish Government and our work with Holocaust-related issues, professor Yehuda Bauer. The day before last, I had the great honour to bestow professor Bauer with the most prestigious distinction by the Swedish Government upon a private person, for the first time given to a foreign citizen. It is given to professor Yehuda Bauer for his untiring work for remembrance, research and education about the Holocaust in order to prevent future genocides.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I borrow the words from Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Stockholm International Forum last year, when I say: “There can be no more important issue, and no more binding obligation, than the prevention of genocide”.
Still 60 years after the Holocaust we have a long way to go. We must now make the UN institutions work more integrated, reflecting the link between human rights, security and development. We must create a stronger political will to move from words to deeds.
Today, that political will is particularly needed in Sudan. Darfur may for many of us already be synonymous to genocide. But there is still room for new efforts to prevent further atrocities and further suffering.
We also need better strategies and tools. The appointment of the Special Adviser, Mr. Juan Méndez, on the prevention of genocide is a welcome strengthening of the UN mechanisms.
The Swedish Government will continue the work developed within the Stockholm International Forum. We will make new efforts to strengthen our common capacity. We will also continue our educational efforts both within the framework of Task Force International and the Swedish research and information center Living History Forum.
In this same spirit we intend to take an initiative this year to strengthen research on the prevention of genocide, with a special aim to engage a new generation of researchers in this crucial task.
Dear Friends,
“All tales do not end happily”, Sarah Shulman stated at the Stockholm Synagogue, “but” she continued “even in ashes new seeds can spring up and bloom”.
Her message to us all was never to forget, never to lose sight of the fragility of democracy and the existence of antisemitism, and to build future on knowledge of the past. Because, as she finalized her speech, “no child should have to learn its heroes were annihilated.” In this our common and never ending task the New Yad Vashem Museum will be an even greater inspiration, a fatherly security and our prime story teller.
Thank you.
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