Special Events at the United Nations for Holocaust Remembrance 2016
Strength to Strength is proud to promote the 2016 Holocaust Remembrance events at the United Nations
2016 Calendar of Holocaust Remembrance Events
“The Holocaust and Human Dignity”
The theme for the Holocaust remembrance and education activities in 2016, including the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, is “The Holocaust and Human Dignity”. The theme links Holocaust remembrance with the founding principles of the United Nations and reaffirms faith in the dignity and worth of every person that is highlighted in the United Nations Charter, as well as the right to live free from discrimination and with equal protection under the law that is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Holocaust, which resulted in the destruction of nearly two thirds of European Jewry, remains one of the most painful reminders of the international community’s failure to protect them.
Monday, 25 January 2016
Exhibit Opening "Holocaust by Bullets”
Venue: Visitors’ Lobby, General Assembly Building
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Contact: valerie.guillamo@diplomatie.gouv.frThe exhibition "Holocaust by Bullets" presents the results of hundreds of days of fieldwork that enabled Yahad-In Unum to collect evidence of massacres during the Second World War in order to return memory and dignity to Jewish victims. It also underscores the "Holocaust by Bullets" as a precursor and model for mass crimes today. The exhibit is organized by the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations. Special guest at the exhibit opening: Father Patrick Desbois, President of Yahad-In Unum. The exhibition will be on view through 9 February 2016.
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Exhibit Opening “Life after Survival”
Venue: Visitors’ Lobby, General Assembly Building
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Contact: katharina.kalaschnikow@diplo.de“Life after Survival” opening of an exhibit on child Holocaust survivors cared for by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration at Kloster Indersdorf, in the American Zone in Germany. Sponsored by Concentration Camp Memorial Site Flossenbürg, Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, and Heimatverein Indersdorf and Lagergemeinschaft Dachau. Special guests at the exhibit opening: several Holocaust survivors who appear in the historical photos and Anna Andlauer, exhibition curator. The exhibition will be on view through 9 February 2016.
Wednesday, 27 January 2016
United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony
International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the HolocaustThe event was hosted by Ms. Cristina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. The ceremony included remarks by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; H. E. Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, President of the seventieth session of the General Assembly; H.E. Mr. Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations; H.E. Ms. Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations and H.E. Mr. Felix Klein, Special Representative for relations with Jewish Organizations, issues relating to Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Remembrance. In addition, Mr. Szabolcs Takács, the Chair of the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance made a statement. Ms. Barbara Winton opened a video tribute to her father, Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children from the Holocaust on the Czech Kindertransport.Mrs. Beate Klarsfeld (Germany) was a keynote speaker. Personal testimony was delivered by Jewish Holocaust survivorsMrs. Marta Wise and Mr. Haim Roet, and by Mr. Zoni Weisz, a Sinto survivor. Cantor Gideon Zelermyer, accompined by Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir from Montreal (Canada), recited the memorial prayers. Roma musicians Antal Kopar (guitar) and Bela Horvath (violin) performed during the ceremony. The event concluded with a performance by the United States Military Academy Jewish Chapel Choir, West Point.
Venue: General Assembly Hall
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Contact: holocaustremembrance@un.orgConcert and Lecture
“In Memoriam: Hungarian Composers – Victims of the Holocaust”
Venue: Permanent Mission of Hungary to the United Nations
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Contact: EvaSchafer@mfa.gov.hu“In Memoriam: Hungarian Composers – Victims of the Holocaust” will introduce the work of Hungarian composers of Jewish origin who were murdered during the Holocaust. The stories of these composers remain largely unknown. All of them died young, before being able to fulfill their potential. In spite of the adverse circumstances, they had produced work of value. The event featured a concert by the professors of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music: Vilmos Szabadi (violin), Mariann Marczi (piano) and Eszter Karasszon (cello), who performed pieces by Hungarian composers Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Lajos Delej, György Justus and Imre Sárossi. The program included a lecture by Agnes Kory, founder of the Béla Bartók Centre for Musicianship in London. The event is part of the commemorative events dedicated to Hungary’s Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
Thursday, 28 January 2016
United Nations Department of Public Information NGO Briefing
“The Future of Holocaust Education”Venue: Conference Room 4
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Contact: undpingo@un.orgThis briefing brought together experts from academic institutions and international organizations, researchers, educators and authors who examined current trends in Holocaust research and education. Key questions discussed: how to expand teacher training and Holocaust education around the world; how to adapt to a changing environment with the rise of multicultural classroom settings and fewer and fewer eye witnesses to testify to the Holocaust and what role international organizations have to play in the field.
The panellists included Szabolcs Takács, Chair of IHRA, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance; Debórah Dwork, Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Director, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University; Professor Zehavit Gross, Chairholder, UNESCO/Burg Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance and Peace, Bar-llan University; Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies and Jane Jacobs-Kimmelman, Director of the International Relations Department at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. The discussion was moderated by Kimberly Mann, the Chief of the Education Outreach Section in the Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Public Information.
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Film Screening "Woman in Gold"
Venue: Trusteeship Council
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Contact: holocaustremembrance@un.org The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, in partnership with the World Jewish Congress and the Weinstein Company, organized the film screening and discussion that shed light on the loss of personal property and humiliation that Jewish families endured in Nazi-occupied Europe, and how difficult it has been for them to attain justice. It provide insight into the desperate situation faced by the victims of the Holocaust under a reign of terror and the complete breakdown of fair legal practice. For many families, the plunder of art and personal assets remains one of many unsolved transgressions committed by the Nazis.Directed by Simon Curtis, Woman in Gold is the remarkable true story of one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna during the Second World War, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish woman, starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Klimt's famous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Together with her inexperienced but plucky young lawyer, Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), she embarks upon a major battle that takes them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the United States Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the past along the way.
Participants at the New York event included Ms. Cristina Gallach, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information; Mr. Simon Curtis, Director, Woman in Gold, Ms. Evelyn Sommer, Chair, World Jewish Congress, North America, Ms. Monica Dugot, International Director of Restitution, Christie’s, and Mr. Wesley A. Fisher, Director of Research, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. and Head of Claims Conference-WJRO Looted Art and Cultural Property Initiative.
For more information please click on this link http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2016/calendar2016.html
