Europe gears up to honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day

[Behind the Aegis]

PARIS - As countries across Europe prepare for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, being commemorated on Friday, European Parliament President Martin Schulz spoke of his "specific responsibility" as a German to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

"I feel that I have a very specific responsibility," said Schulz at European Union headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, addressing a crowd of 500 parliamentarians, ambassadors and other guests at an event organized by the European Jewish Congress, "because what was decided at the so-called Wannsee Conference - the extermination of the Jewish people - was done in the name of the German people," Schulz said, referring to the meeting of Nazi officials in 1942 to decide on the "Final Solution."

"The German people of today is not guilty [of the Holocaust], but responsible for keeping the memory alive," he said. "For me, this means that whoever is representing the German nation has one important duty - to take into account our responsibility for the Jews in the world."

Schulz said he had decided that the international day of commemoration, which was established six years ago by the UN General Assembly, will become an official annual event of the European Parliament from now on. The date, January 27, is the same day in 1945 that the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated by Soviet forces.

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[DonCoquixote]

1. And I am sure

that all the rioght wingers in EU shall shed a sincere tear, as well as the ones on the extreme left who insist that when they attack Jews, they mean israel, then go right back to attacking Jews.

[COLGATE4]

2. But in a recent study as reported

on NBC News, 20% of German youth have no idea of what Auschwitz was.

[pampango]

3. BBC: Norway apologises for deporting Jews during Holocaust

The Norwegian prime minister has apologised for the role his country played in deporting its own Jews as Europe marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. "Norwegians carried out the arrests, Norwegians drove the trucks and it happened in Norway," Jens Stoltenberg said in a speech.

It is believed to be the first time a Norwegian leader has been so explicit about collusion under Nazi occupation.

Norway acknowledged its role in the Holocaust in 1998 and paid some $60m (£38m) to Norwegian Jews and Jewish organisations in compensation for property seized. However, the payout fell short of a full apology.

He added that he was sorry to see that the "ideas that led to the Holocaust [were] still very much alive today". "All over the world we see that individuals and groups are spreading intolerance and fear," he said.

In other news related to Holocaust Remembrance Day:

Austria's Green Party leader, Eva Glavischnig, suggested attendees at a Vienna ball on Friday evening which traditionally attracts the far right would be "dancing on the graves of Auschwitz"

A public TV channel in Turkey began broadcasting the epic 1985 documentary Shoah - the first mainly Muslim state ever to do so - in what its director Claude Lanzmann, 87, called a "historic event"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16761558

"All over the world we see that individuals and groups are spreading intolerance and fear" - We know Mr Stoltenberg. A campaign based on intolerance and fear is all one of our political parties in the US has to go on.