Address to the Swedish Parliament on the Occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day
Good afternoon. Thank you, Per Westerberg, and Mikael Oscarsson for inviting me to be with you today.
It is an honour to have been asked today to join you at this solemn ceremony and commemoration.
I can think of few better places to reflect this year on the continuing importance of International Holocaust Memorial Day than here.
This year the centenary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, one of Sweden’s greatest figures, gives the day a special poignancy and power.
His selfless courage saved the lives of thousands, bringing hope in the darkest days of human history.
And his heroic defence of the vulnerable, and of our most basic human rights, is as relevant today as it was then, almost 70 years ago.
Ladies and gentlemen, when discussing the enormity of the Holocaust, we always struggle to find the right words.
The Italian writer Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz who has left us the most vivid account of what it was like to be a victim of the Holocaust, was himself troubled by the inadequacy of human language to describe something so inhuman.
He believed our vocabulary was simply too gentle to portray what he had seen and experienced.
Indeed, it remains hard to speak about, and impossible to make sense of, an event of such horror and magnitude.
Here in Europe, and within my lifetime, six million Jews were systematically murdered, together with many other victims.
Of course, depravity on this scale could not be hidden. Many who played no active role in it knew what was happening, but chose to ignore it; chose to be idle bystanders.
As Primo Levi again wrote, “Monsters exist- but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the ordinary men, the functionaries, ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
But there were – thank God! – a few who refused to be cowed or deflected from what they knew was their duty to their fellow human beings, no matter what the personal cost.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day gives us the chance, as well as honouring the victims, to celebrate these acts of courage and sacrifice.
Raoul Wallenberg stands high among these heroes. This country can share with his family an immense pride in his humanity and moral strength.
His achievements stand as a testament to the difference we can make. They show that, as individuals, we are NOT powerless against evil.
It’s an example we must remember and cherish – an example of the values we should all strive to live by, and act on.
Above all, we must never relax in our efforts to prevent such inhumanity from happening again.
It was in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust – just as the world was learning the full horrors of the camps – that the United Nations was formed to protect future generations from the scourge of war.
Three years later, the General Assembly adopted, on consecutive days, the Convention on Genocide, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – both aimed at protecting the inherent worth of each human being, no matter what their race, colour, religion or sex.
Indeed, these have helped make much of our world a better and safer place.
Yet they were not enough to save millions of lives in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia – to name just three examples.
While the Holocaust is unique in its historical significance, we have seen the same seeds of intolerance sown and their horrific results in too many countries and continents.
Too often, the promise of “never again” has rung hollow.
In response, many people and governments have increased their vigilance, and their actions to protect the vulnerable.
The International Criminal Court, first conceived in the immediate post-war years, has been established, along with other international tribunals for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and others– and the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect has been accepted, in word at least, by all Member States of the United Nations.
In the last 12 months, we have seen a former head of state brought before the Court for crimes he committed against his own people.
And we have seen some effort by states, working within the framework of the United Nations, to go beyond words and seek to protect populations against war crimes and crimes against humanity.
We must not be complacent. We need to build on these important but limited achievements, at both regional and international level.
And we must learn from the example of Raoul Wallenberg that the fight against injustice, prejudice and hatred can never be left to governments and institutions alone.
It is the responsibility of all of us to defend human life and uphold dignity, to speak out against intolerance and bigotry wherever we find them – and to instil throughout our societies, especially among the young, the values and culture that will help them do that.
Our nations are more diverse than ever before, bringing great benefits but also at times huge strains – strains which have proved fertile ground for those who feed on fear and want to inflame divisions.
So at a local and national level, we must work to build tolerant, harmonious societies through progressive, fair and inclusive policies.
We need to encourage dialogue across society, so that people can live together in diversity and freedom.
Each in our own life, our own workplace, our own neighbourhood, we must constantly be on our guard against the scapegoating of people who look or think or behave differently from ourselves.
In these efforts, as in so much else which is worthwhile, it is the younger generation who are our greatest hope.
As we think about our own children and grandchildren today, we must remember the one-and-a-half million children who perished in the Holocaust.
We will never know what they would have achieved, the leaders they might have become, the happiness they would have brought.
The best way to honour them is to educate our own children, both about the lessons of the past and about the challenges of forging a strong, common humanity in the future.
This will become more difficult. As time passes, we will no longer be able to hear directly, as we have today, from those who personally endured or witnessed the horrors of 70 years ago.
We must find new ways to keep alive these memories and lessons.
We must teach our children the value of human empathy and solidarity – teach them to resist the temptation to turn away when injustice is suffered by others.
And we must remember that values can only really be taught by example. So we, too, must live up to the high standards that we preach.
The last time Per Anger saw Raoul Wallenberg, he urged him to seek safety, and to abandon his efforts to protect the Jews of Budapest.
Raoul refused, answering simply “To me, there’s no other choice.”
We need men and women like Raoul to be the rule, rather than the exception.
So, ladies and gentlemen, let us resolve to mirror his courage and moral conscience.
Thank you very much.
