Declaration by the USA and Germany: New initiative against Holocaust denial

The USA and Germany want to work together to ensure that future generations will also learn the truth about the Holocaust. The foreign ministers of both countries signed a declaration to this effect in Berlin.

Germany and the USA want to fight the denial of the Holocaust more decisively in the future. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his American counterpart Antony Blinken signed a declaration to this effect at the Berlin Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Among other things, it provides for a Holocaust conference at the end of the year, which should be the prelude to further deliberations on the subject. The meeting is being prepared by the foreign ministries of both countries, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the German Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

According to the declaration, both countries see it as a shared duty “to do everything in our power to ensure that future generations learn the truth about the Holocaust and to prevent such horrific crimes against humanity through our actions.” ever happened again “. Among other things, the educational work on the topic is to be improved.

“Gradual Descent into Darkness”

Blinken, whose stepfather survived the Nazi extermination and concentration camps in Treblinka, Majdanek, Dachau and Auschwitz, said it was important to understand that the Holocaust was “not a steep fall, but a gradual descent into darkness”. During the corona pandemic, for example, there was such an increase in the spread of anti-Semitic content and denial of the Holocaust on the Internet.

Maas emphasized that the politics of remembrance are now facing major challenges: Since there will soon be no more contemporary witnesses, new ways of remembering will have to be found. “We owe this to the murdered and the survivors,” he emphasized.