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Austria passes Holocaust Task Force presidency to Norway |
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Austria passes presidency of the Holocaust Task Force to Norway
The holocaust is not a concluded hinstorical event
Bernhard J. Holzner © HOPI-MEDIA
Ambassador Trautmansdorff at the Holocaust Conference
Vienna, 17 March 2009 - During a ceremony in the Foreign
Ministry on 17 March 2009, the Director of the International Law
Office, Ambassador Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff passed the presidency of
the International Holocaust Task Force (ITF), which Austria had held
since March 2008, to Ambassador Tom Vraalsen, a high ranking Norwegian
diplomat.
"There is no other international organization that unites so much
expertise on the Holocaust as ITF. Yet it also possesses a diplomatic
channel where to exert its influence", said Trauttmansdorff. "All major
institutions concerned with education, remembrance and research of the
Holocaust, such as Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Washington Holocaust
Memorial Museum, and the Memorial de Shoah in Paris, are represented in
this organization."
He added that Holocaust education is more topical than ever before. The
previous ITF president reminded of the recent desecration of the
Mauthausen memorial with the letters 'Was unsern Vätern der Jud, ist
für uns die Moslembrut. Seid auf der Hut. 3. Weltkrieg - 8. Kreuzzug'
(What Jews were for our fathers is the Muslim mob for us. Be on your
guard. World War III – 8th Crusade) and warned that"such an
unimaginable bridge between the Holocaust and current xenophobic trends
must be taken very seriously. This reminds us that the Holocaust is not
a concluded event buried somewhere in the depths of history".
Therefore, it is all the more important for the Task Force to continue
its honest and tireless struggle against anti-Semitism, xenophobia,
racism, and intolerance. This increasingly includes a type of
anti-Semitism hiding its „ugly face behind an alleged political
correctness“.
Although Austria today confronts itself with its past, which has not
been the case for a long time, according to Trauttmansdorff the
Austrian presidency team approached its task with a humility that is in
tune with Austria’s responsibility toward the Holocaust.
Ambassador Vraalsen, a former Norwegian Development Minister, warned
against overt and hidden prejudices and stereotypes. "They must be
fought both publicly and in the grey and dark zones of Holocaust
denial, anti-Semitism, revisionism, and the discrimination of
minorities", he said. He praised the Austrian presidency and promised
to build upon its work in making the most out of the reservoir of
expert knowledge and professional wisdom available in the ITF network.
Federal Ministry for European and international Affairs
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