18 October 1995

Mr. President,

At the outset, allow me to express our appreciation to the Russian Federation for taking the initiative of bringing this issue before the United Nations General Assembly. Israel has lent its support to the Russian initiative to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

This is our moral obligation not only to the fallen soldiers, to the civilian victims and to the honored veterans. It is also our obligation to the generations to come. The lessons of the Second World War are eternal: the evils of racism, the dangers of surrendering to despotism, the bankruptcy of appeasement, and the strength of statesmanship and courage.

Mr. President,

I was born in the Land of Israel. But my parents came from Europe, where they both left behind large families. During the Second World War, over 50 members of my family, including two of my grandparents, were exterminated by the Nazis. As a child growing up in Israel I often wondered what I had missed by not knowing most of my family. As I became older, I understood that had my parents not left Europe when they did, there is no doubt that their fates would have been the same as their families'.

But the survivors of the war have more bitter stories to tell. Many of them did not have the chance to know their parents, their brothers and sisters, their children.

For the State of Israel, the Second World War cannot be remembered without remembering the Holocaust the systematic annihilation of six million Jewish people, 1.5 million of them children, by the Nazis.

The War decimated European culture and civilization that had been nurtured for centuries. The war shattered the entire world. During their twelve year reign of terror, the Nazis directed special fury against the Jewish people. Elie Wiesel, put it best: "Not all victims were Jews. But all Jews were victims."

During these years the Jews of Europe were dehumanized and eventually destroyed. First they were stripped of all rights and dignity and rounded up into ghettos and separated from their countrymen. Starvation and disease hung over every Jewish ghetto. Death was a daily visitor.

As the war in Europe dragged on, the Nazis introduced their "Final Solution to the Jewish problem." Concentration camps and death camps were opened up throughout occupied Europe. It was in these camps that the Nazis attempted to extinguish the Jewish people as a whole.

The Nazis failed in their ultimate goal of eliminating the Jewish people from the community of nations. However, the years between 1939 and 1945 marked the destruction of Jewish life in Eastern and Central Europe. Two-thirds of European Jewry was obliterated in a total and systematic way. Communities rich in culture and spirit, commerce and science. Communities that gave the world Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Primo Levy and Karl Marx- were destroyed.

But the Holocaust is not only about the death of six million of our brothers and sisters. It is also about the bravery and the heroism of the Jewish people in the face of horror. Many Jews chose to resist the Nazis. In the forests with the partisans. In the Warsaw ghetto. In the Treblinka death camp. And in countless other places. Jews condemned to death for the sole crime of being born Jewish faced their condemners and chose to die fighting. With dignity.

Jewish soldiers joined the fight against the Nazis. Wherever Partisans stood and fought, Jews stood with them. In Poland. In France. In Yugoslavia. In Russia. The Jews of Mandatory Palestine fought proudly in the Jewish Brigade of the British army. Those who were citizens of allied countries fought as Russians, Americans, Canadians, British, French, Australians and others.

I see a moral obligation to mention the brave indivudals who risked their own lives to save the lives of others, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Schindler was not alone. There were rightous people in Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Poland, Italy and other countries.

When the nightmare was over and the Nazis vanquished, it was the hope of Jewish sovereignty that sustained the survivors of the Nazi brutality. Upon war's end, the victorious allies set about the admirable goal of creating an international body that was committed to the cause of international peace and security and the establishment of a just society. Their efforts resulted in this United Nations, which today celebrates its fiftieth year.

Less than three years after the gas chambers ceased their operations, the UN passed the resolution on the partition of Palestine. This decision led directly to the birth of the State of Israel in May 1948. Since that time, Israel has become a home to hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors and their descendants. The State of Israel has become a haven for Jews fleeing persecution from around the world.

At times, I think that if Israel had existed before the Second World War, many of those who perished could have been saved.

Mr. President,

We all owe a debt of honor and gratitude to the nations who fought to end the war, to liberate the occupied countries and to give new hope to the people and nations of the world. It was their finest hour. I hope that we all act in a manner befitting the memory of the many millions who lost their lives to save othersto save humanity.

It is upon us all to remember the lessons of the Second World War and the Holocaust: the price of powerlessness and the evils of hatred and racism. Today, as we mark the victory of good over evil, of democracy over dictatorship, the specter of radicalism, racism and hatred still loom over us all.

Mr. President,

Today, the UN Member States have an obligation to build a world based on tolerance and mutual respect. We must not slacken in our fight against the poverty and hopelessness that creates fundamentalism and hatred. Our efforts must succeed.

Thank you, Mr. President

Statement by Ambassador Gad Yaacobi
Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
Before Adoption of the Resolution on the Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the end of the Second World War

(Agenda Item 36)

18 October 1995

The Jewish people can never forget the enormity of the Holocaust. The State of Israel, as the Jewish National Home, has a special obligation to remember. An obligation to the memory of the six million who perished in the European graveyard. And an obligation to the survivors who have rebuilt their lives in Israel and elsewhere.

This resolution does not mention the Holocaust, but I must. For the six million whose voices have been forever silenced. For the Jewish people. For the State of Israel. And for future generations.

Israel, therefore, cannot co-sponsor this resolution. However, we will not request a vote on this resolution.