Anniversary of the Wannsee Conference: With Israel against Holocaust denial

The German ambassador to Israel and her Israeli colleague in Berlin want to introduce a UN resolution against Holocaust denial. Foreign Minister Baerbock admits that her office shares responsibility for the Holocaust.

Israel and Germany want to introduce a UN resolution against Holocaust denial together. This is what the German Ambassador to Israel, Susanne Wasum-Rainer, and the Israeli Ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, wrote in a guest article in the Berliner “Daily Mirror” and the Israeli daily newspaper “Maariv”.

The reason for her contribution is the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference. On January 20, 1942, Nazi officials discussed the extermination and systematic murder of up to eleven million Jews in Europe in a villa on Berlin’s Wannsee. The Wannsee Conference is considered a key event of the Holocaust.

Holocaust facts are put into perspective

“This resolution is meant to be a sign of hope and inspiration for all states and societies that stand up for diversity and tolerance, strive for reconciliation and understand that remembering the Holocaust is essential to prevent such crimes from happening again,” write Wasum -Rainer and Issacharoff.

In their guest article they criticize the denial of the Holocaust. The facts of the Shoah are still being disputed and their exceptional historical character is being put into perspective. This is not only widespread among political radicals, but a social, international phenomenon.

Call for a uniform definition of anti-Semitism

Denying the Holocaust is not only an attack on the victims of the genocide and their descendants, on Jews all over the world and on the State of Israel – but also “on the basic condition of peaceful societies and peaceful coexistence worldwide”.

As measures against Holocaust denial, they propose a unified definition of anti-Semitism and investment in education and awareness-raising. In addition, relativization of the Holocaust in social networks should be prevented.

Complicity of the Foreign Office

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock admits that the Federal Foreign Office is partly to blame for the Holocaust. “We will never forget what Germany did to them,” she says, according to a statement by the Foreign Office. “Officials from the Foreign Office who put themselves at the service of crimes and genocide by the Nazi regime are also to blame for their suffering.”

Anyone who bears responsibility in the civil service must first and foremost be committed to the law and humanity. It is therefore an integral part of the training at the Foreign Office to deal critically with National Socialism. Employees worldwide would be sensitized to recognize anti-Semitism and will henceforth be reminded of this on Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

Mandatory visits to concentration camp memorials for teachers

The federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, called for obligatory visits by prospective teachers to concentration camp memorials or the House of the Wannsee Conference. “I fail to understand that it is still possible in Germany to complete a teaching degree without having any connection with the Shoah,” says Klein.