Germany, Israel to honor Holocaust victims
German Ambassador to Korea Stephan Auer, left, listens to Israeli Ambassador to Korea Chaim Choshen during the opening ceremony of the "Culture Week on the Holocaust" at Goethe-Institute Korea in Seoul in this file photo taken on Feb. 6, 2017. / Courtesy of German Embassy
By Yi Whan-woo
The embassies of Germany and Israel will join Goethe-Institute Korea from Jan. 22 to 24 to commemorate the Holocaust.
The three have co-hosted the memorial event, “Culture Week on the Holocaust,” since last year, in line with the United Nations’ International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Jan. 27. This year’s event will take place at Goethe-Institute Korea, Germany’s language and cultural center in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
German Ambassador to Korea Stephan Auer and Israeli Ambassador to Korea Chaim Choshen will give speeches during the opening ceremony at 7 p.m. Other invited guests include former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and over 30 ambassadors, many from European countries, according to the German Embassy.
The opening day program will consist of two parts — a lecture by Stephanie McMahon-Kaye, a scholar from the International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem, about “spiritual and cultural resistance during the Holocaust,” and followed by the screening of the English-language documentary, “Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust,” about Israeli violin maker Amnon Weinstein, who restored violins recovered from the Holocaust.
Each program on Jan. 23 and 24 will begin at 7 p.m. and last for two hours.
McMahon-Kaye will give a lecture again on Jan. 23 about the victims, perpetrators and bystanders of the Holocaust under the theme, “The Who of the Holocaust.”
Meanwhile, the last day’s program will feature a special video clip of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from January 2015, showing the orchestra members playing violins that once belonged to victims of the Holocaust that were restored by Weinstein.
In 2005, the U.N.’s Holocaust Remembrance resolution designated Jan. 27 as an annual commemoration day for Holocaust victims.
The resolution urges every U.N. member country to honor Holocaust victims and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent genocide.