'Let’s have zero-tolerance for anti-semitism'

Speakers at a forum organised at the British Council auditorium in Accra to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust have said our collective attitude when facing anti-Semitism must be that of zero-tolerance.

They advised Ghana to ensure that anti-Semitism, the hatred for Jews, did not show its ugly face in the country.

The speakers also said it was important for all to speak up when such acts of hatred, xenophobia, racism and discrimination were being perpetrated against other people, groups or countries.

Members of the diplomatic community, state officials, members of civil society organisations (CSOs), the media and schoolchildren attended the forum last Monday which was held on the theme: “75 Years after Auschwitz: Holocaust Education and Remembrance for Global Justice”.

A documentary which featured Oscar Groning as ‘the Accountant of Auschwitz’ who goes on trial as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people 70 years after World War II was screened.

The Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Shani Cooper, pointed out that anti-Semitism did not stop with the Jews. She said anti-Semitism and racism were malignant diseases that destroyed and pulled societies apart from within, and no society or democracy was immune.

She said: “Together, we will continue to fight anti-Semitism and racism, we will fight Holocaust denial, we will educate our sons and daughters, we will remember and research so that history does not repeat itself. The Age of Responsibility – the responsibility of all of us sitting here – is not over.”

The ambassador urged Ghana to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and adopt its definition of anti-Semitism.

Mrs Cooper noted that Nazi Germany tried to destroy the Jewish people in an act of freeing the world of the Jews, saying the Nazi race theory cost the lives of over 66 million people.

She said every year on January 27, the world stopped for a few minutes to remember the Holocaust; and while everyone tried to grasp the full dimension of that incomprehensible tragedy, she had one person in mind, and that was her grandmother, Rachel Klejman, who was only six years old when the Nazis invaded Brussels.

German Ambassador

The German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Christoph Retzlaff, recalled that 75 years ago, the concentration camp of Auschwitz was liberated and the world began to fully understand the full scale of horror of the Shoah.

He said more than six million Jews were murdered, and pointed out that for all times, the Holocaust would stand as an unparalleled crime against humanity, as a total breakdown of the most basic values of humanity.

The ambassador stressed that it was not only the numbers that we should remember, but each and every individual. “So many lives, young and old, were lost. They are missing. Something is missing to all of us. This loss is irreversible. It is a wound that will not heal.

“The memory of all the crimes, the persecution, the murder of Jews will, therefore, always carry this pain, the pain of what was destroyed and never came into being,” he stated, adding that there was no escaping that past.

Mr Retzlaff pointed out that Germany, the country he represented, had assumed the moral responsibility for the deeds of their ancestors and noted that the pain, the shame, the responsibility growing from it, were all part of their identity and the basic understanding of the German state.

He said it belonged to the core tenets of their Constitution and their pain was enshrined in its first sentence: “Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.”

Mr Retzlaff stated: “That is why our attitude must be one of zero-tolerance when facing anti-Semitism – especially in Germany, but also in Europe and the world as a whole.”

He reminded all that we were living in challenging times and that the core values of our democracies and sometimes also our humanity were under pressure, even under attack from outside and also from within. Nationalistic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic forces were on the rise in many countries.

“Let us be aware of this! Let us never again embark on a path that pits one country and one people against another and preaches that our victory can only grow from the defeat of the other,” he advised and said the lesson for all of us must be: “Never again.”

UN Representative

The United Nations Resident Coordinator, Ms Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, observed that the resurgence of hatred in recent years, from violent extremism to attacks on places of worship, showed that anti-Semitism, other forms of bigotry, racism and prejudice were still very much with us.

“Just as the hatred persists, so must our resolve to fight it,” she noted.

She advised the schoolchildren present at the forum that whenever they saw prejudice or discrimination happening in their schools or even on television in what might seem to be a distant country, they should remember that whenever and wherever extremism, xenophobia, racism and intolerance were allowed to grow, the consequences would be devastating for not only the victims, but everyone.

Ms Lopez-Ekra advised them not to be silent when they saw such things, but speak up and remember that an attack on one was an attack on all.

Holocaust

Holocaust means sacrifice by fire and was the most destructive act of genocide against the Jews. It evokes strong emotions among most Jews, both within and outside of Israel.