Israel, Germany jointly commemorate Holocaust for 4th year

Israeli Ambassador to Korea Chaim Choshen, center, German Ambassador to Korea Stephan Auer, right, and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon hold hands during a commemoration night for International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Goethe-Institute Korea in Seoul on Jan. 21. / Seoul Metropolitan Government

Seoul mayor offers to commemorate genocide together in 2020

By Yi Whan-woo

The embassies of Israel and Germany joined the Goethe-Institute Korea to commemorate the Holocaust on Jan. 21.

The three co-hosted the commemoration for the fourth year, in line with the United Nations’ International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Jan. 27.

The event took place at the Goethe-Institute Korea, Germany’s language and cultural center in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

It offered a glimpse into joint efforts between Israel and Germany to raise global awareness about the genocide committed against Jews before and during World War II, and also how Germany sincerely atones for its wartime past.

It hinted at a chance to better draw Korea’s attention toward one of the world’s most heinous crimes, when Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon proposed that the countries commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day next year together.

Nearly 6 million Jews — out of a Jewish population of 9 million living in Europe — were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.

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 to help prevent genocide.

“We have to fight not only Holocaust denial and Holocaust distortion, but also Holocaust trivialization,” said Israeli Ambassador to Korea Chaim Choshen.

He referred to a recent survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which said anti-Semitism had become part of the daily lives of Jews in certain areas.

“What was once impermissible is again imaginable,” said Ambassador Choshen, underscoring the Holocaust Remembrance resolution was critical to inculcate future generations with lessons of the Holocaust.

“The resolution...will be forever a warming to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.”

German Ambassador to Korea Stephan Auer cited a need to raise awareness about the Holocaust.

“Our joint commemoration on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day has become a tradition, but is far from being a mere ritual,” he said.

“This is not just the task of the older generations. It is our joint duty — as politicians, researchers, diplomats, but also of ordinary parents and citizens.”

Ambassador Auer said Germany has “special responsibility to remember the Holocaust so that such a horrible atrocity will never happen again.”

Commenting on Germany’s responsibility, Goethe-Institute Korea Director Marla Stukenberg shared her experience as a student during her visit in 1979 to Nazi Germany’s concentration camp in Stutthof, Poland.

“Being confronted as a young person with the post-camp relics at the Stutthof Memorial made it instantly evident, that remembrance is our duty, our responsibility,” she said.

“By sharing this evening together we commemorate the Holocaust in our own possible way — with our words, with poetry and with the renewal of our promise never to forget.”

Mayor Park said he appreciated Israel for “spreading the truth” about the Holocaust and Germany for making genuine efforts to apologize and heal.

“I call on countries and leaders that have committed such crimes and yet are busy justifying their actions to reflect on their wrongdoing and apologize for them,” he said.

He suggested commemorating next year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Seoul Museum of History jointly with the embassies of Israel and Germany.

The details need to be discussed, but it could include programs about the Holocaust and similar massacres that happened in Korea.

Choshen said Park’s presence “signifies the importance” of the remembrance event, while Auer said it reflected the message that International Holocaust Remembrance Day “goes beyond bilateral relations and geographic borders.”

The speeches of the ambassadors, Goethe-Institute Korea director and the Seoul mayor came in between musical performances and poems about the Holocaust.

The six poems — “The Action into Ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942,” “Fugue of Death,” “Eli Eli: A Walk to Caesaria,” “Each of us has a name,” “Astonished,” and “First They Came for the Jews,” — were recited in Hebrew, German, English or Korean.