Speech by Minister Mary Hanafin (Ireland), on behalf of the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education of the 48 signatory States of the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe

following the "March of the Living" from Auschwitz to Birkenau concentration camps 5 May 2005.

 

Excellencies, ladies, gentlemen and young friends,

 

I am very honoured to have been invited to speak on this solemn occasion on behalf of the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education of the Council of Europe

 

Remembrance is a blend of sensitivity and reason. Victims are honoured, and a sense of intergenerational responsibility is aroused, through significant and unforgettable events.

 

So it is with this "March of the Living" initiated over 15 years ago which this year has had nearly 20 000 participants, people who came from every corner of the earth in testimony to the everlasting presence of an irreparable wrong. Survivors are intermingled with new generations and thus bear witness to the bond that unites them, to a solidarity that endures though the ages of life and for all time.

 

To the witnesses of the cruellest hours, we, Ministers of Education of the 48 signatory States of the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe, give our assurance that they will never again be alone or abandoned.

 

Here in Birkenau, and Auschwitz and so many other places in Europe, we are overcome by the echo of the heart-rending laments of so many.  Men, women and children cry out to us from the depths of the horror they knew.  How can we fail to heed their cry?  No one can forget or ignore what happened.  No one can diminish its scale.

 

We wish to remember.  But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail as it did for the millions of innocent victims.

 

The warning contained in memory is our best common defence.  The evil that turns humanity against humanity, cheapening its life, degrading it, bent on its destruction, still lurks in the world.  It does not rest and neither must we in our remembering.  For it is by  remembering the unspeakable horror that did in fact happen that we remain alert to the possibility that what happened could be attempted again.  It is through our common remembrance of those who perished that they shield the living.

 

To future generations, we proclaim the undertaking of the Council of Europe that they will never know such horror.

 

The Council of Europe has constantly concerned and involved itself with many initiatives and actions for the recognition of the Holocaust and for the prevention of crimes against humanity.

 

We all join together in acknowledging the "March of the Living" as a symbol of this long-term action and an invitation to carry on our efforts to ensure that such things never happen again.