http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/index/ en U.S. Department of State 2012-05-20T23:11:38+00:00 Yom Ha'Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Judaism, when we remember the dead we say "zikron l'vrach"-- may their memory be for a blessing. On this day, we stand united against one of the most sinister and evil chapters of history, scarred by the unthinkable deeds of governments and collaborators and the silence of so many.

In my job as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, two of the tools I use in my outreach to governments and civil society are education and dialogue. They are mandatory first steps to prevent and overcome ignorance and hate. We must advance the universal message that such evil must be confronted rather than ignored. We must forge connections between students, between communities, and between faiths.

In January, I was honored to attend a United Nations showing of the unique documentary film, The Last Flight of Petr Ginz. The film tells the story of an artistic Czech boy who was killed at Auschwitz. It focuses on Petr's short life -- how he wrote poems and novels while interned at Terezin and how strongly he wanted to live despite the horrors surrounding him. Watching the documentary, I was humbled by Petr's strength, much as I am humbled whenever I meet survivors, camp liberators, rescuers, and eyewitnesses of this terrible event. I am the child of a Holocaust survivor myself. Films like Petr Ginz, remind us of the power of the individual, the power of expression, the power of memory. It is a lesson we must all take to heart.

Despite our commitment to expose and educate about the killing factories and concentration camps of World War II, to our dismay, the Holocaust was not the final chapter on genocide and human hatred. The bigotry and ignorance that drove the Nazis still exists, and, in fact, thrives today. In Rwanda during the summer of 1994 almost a million people were murdered in only 100 days. In 1995, more than 8,000 were massacred in Bosnia and Herzegovina around Srebrenica. During the Khmer Rouge's reign in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, almost two million people were killed. Between 2003 and 2010, over 300,000 people died in the conflict in Darfur.

As we pause today to commemorate Yom Ha'Shoah, we must remember the six million Jews and other victims who perished during the Holocaust. And we must stay vigilant in confronting bigotry and hatred whenever we encounter it. Let us work together to create a more respectful world and ensure memories of the millions killed by the Nazis will be "for a blessing."

Editor's Note: More information on Special Envoy Rosenthal's efforts to combat anti-Semitism can be found on the Department of State's website and on the Facebook page for the virtual campaign 2012 Hours Against Hate. To read Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's press statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, please click here.

Stay connected with Special Envoy Rosenthal on Facebook.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/holocaust_remembrance_day/ 2012-04-18T22:19:28+00:00
Albania, at the time a newly independent European State with a majority Muslim population, is the only country to have saved its entire Jewish population during the Holocaust. According to historians, Jews had been living in Albania since the seventh century. At the start of the Holocaust, the Albanian Jewish population was small -- only 200 or so persons. It would have been simple for the Albanian government to turn their Jews over to the Nazis, to march them to their deaths like the local police did in other European countries. But instead, Albania responded courageously. Albania provided refuge to Albert Einstein as he fled Nazi Germany. The Albanian Embassy in Berlin provided visas to Jews when no other European country would even consider it for fear of Nazi retribution. Albanians banded together to protect the Jews within their midst, as well as those fleeing the Nazis. Indeed, Albania was not merely a country of some righteous individuals -- the country itself was the protector, providing a place where Jews could be sheltered when the rest of the world stood silent to their pleas. The Albanian Jewish population, by the end of the War, had grown to 2,000 people -- a tenfold increase!

Last year, Special Representative to Muslim Communities Farah Pandith and I launched a campaign called 2011 Hours Against Hate. Now in its second year, 2012 Hours Against Hate is a virtual campaign where young people around the world are asked to donate an hour of their time to walk in the shoes of someone who doesn't look like them, pray like them, or live like them. At its heart, it is asking our youth to practice respect and embody Drita Veseli's statement. This applies not only to respecting religious differences, but also race, ethnicity, gender identity, and disability. Farah and I, a Muslim and a Jew, have traveled the world together promoting this campaign for tolerance and, perhaps without realizing it, promoting the Albanian model of acceptance. 2012 Hour Against Hate's message and poignancy not only has attracted the attention of youth on Facebook and Twitter, but has been adopted by mayors across the globe and even by the 2012 London Olympic Committee. From the start of this campaign at the OSCE in February 2011, Albania was the first country to invite Farah and me to visit. I have very much looked forward to visiting Albania, a country that practices respect with great sincerity.

Speaking about 2012 Hours Against Hate here in Albania today is an honor. Farah and I have traveled throughout the world together speaking about the power of pluralism, mutual respect and acceptance -- and illustrating it as a Jew and a Muslim who support each other's communities. Being in a country whose history is one of Muslim-Jewish friendship and tolerance for all peoples is truly inspiring. After all, Albania's history of acceptance and protection is one which all Albanians, and indeed all Muslims, should be incredibly proud. Standing up to the tyrants of history to do what is right is neither easy nor safe. But it is the right thing to do.

More information on Special Envoy Rosenthal's efforts to combat anti-Semitism can be found on the Department of State's website and on Facebook for the virtual campaign 2011 Hours Against Hate.

Stay connected with Special Envoy Rosenthal on Facebook.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/rosenthal_albania/ 2012-03-09T19:33:50+00:00
Just last week, on January 27, the world remembered the victims of the Holocaust on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This week, while still remembering the victims, we sat down to discuss how to make "Never Again" a reality.

The morning started with a welcoming address from Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO. She highlighted the point that as the world becomes more interconnected and a new global history begins to emerge, it is necessary that the Holocaust be part of this global awareness and that the world understand how the Jewish history of the Holocaust has shaped our present.

Following Bokova's remarks, we spent the day learning from experts who discussed how to shape this global history so that the mistakes of our past do not become the mistakes of our present. Yehuda Bauer of Hebrew University stressed in his remarks that the Holocaust could have been avoided. Not in 1939, however, when world attention only slowly and belatedly began to pay attention to Hitler; rather, the Holocaust could only have been avoided earlier, by a coalition of the willing who saw the writing on the walls and stood up before it was too late.

Later in the day, we discussed more thoroughly what that writing on the walls looked like, how it could have been stopped, and how such warning signs need to be taught to our children. Francois Masabo of the National University of Rwanda explained that every genocide, even a spontaneous genocide like the one in Rwanda, is planned. It is planned through propaganda, derogatory comments that become common and acceptable, and the language of inferiority and dehumanization. These lessons must be part of our Holocaust education -- the bystander who adds to a culture of hate is not a bystander at all.

I had the honor to be a part of the last panel with UNESCO's new Special Envoy for Holocaust Education, Samuel Pisar. Together, we spoke about the challenges of creating age-appropriate curricula. And, more so, how, if we really are going to do this correctly, these curricula need to not only be for our schools, but for our civic leaders, military, journalists, and our communities. As Mark Richmond, Director of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development at UNESCO said in closing, "Holocaust education in our schools alone will not solve the problem; the whole society must become a school for us to succeed."

I'm so grateful I was able to be a part of this conversation and this Administration's strong support for and contribution to UNESCO's Holocaust Education program. Be sure to read President Obama's statement and Secretary Clinton's statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

I look forward to continuing to work together to make "Never Again" a reality.

More information on Special Envoy Rosenthal's efforts to combat anti-Semitism can be found on the Department of State's website and on the Facebook page for the virtual campaign 2012 Hours Against Hate. Stay connected with Special Envoy Rosenthal on Facebook and Twitter. For more on the U.S. government(tm)s engagement on human rights, visit www.humanrights.gov.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/unesco_education_holocaust/ 2012-02-02T23:18:12+00:00