Seminar of the European Ministers of Education “Teaching remembrance through cultural heritage”. Cracow and Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. 4 - 6 May 2005.

 

Opening address by Mr Boguslaw Zaleski, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, representing the Polish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers

 

It is a great honour for me to be here today to represent the Polish Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on the occasion of this conference and the events and visits organised around its theme. The programme is a full and diverse one, including workshops and discussions led by academics, philosophers and political actors, visits to historic sites and exhibition areas, ceremonies of remembrance and of course the traditional “March of the Living”, which will be the biggest ever organised since 1988 when the first one took place.

 

It is impressive to realise that so many people, in so many walks of life, work towards the collective understanding of our common history. In this respect, the special attention we dedicate to the second world war is fully legitimate: our efforts to transform the horror of experience into memory and into lessons for the present and future of our continent and beyond have not gone in vain. The presence of so many young people here is proof that these lessons are listened to; it is also proof of the determination of the new generations not to forget what their parents witnessed and suffered.          

 

The Council of Europe’s constant core commitment to furthering European unity, human rights and democracy throughout the continent could not be carried out without an acute awareness of the horror which is also part of our European heritage. Indeed, these were the ruins upon which our Organisation was built – this is what the founding member states undertook to eradicate from our lives. Today, our activities in the social, cultural and linguistic fields maintain to the full their dimensions of prevention against racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and of the protection of minorities. This is because we know how powerful these negative movements can be, and how important it is to fight them by all means in our power.

 

Tomorrow marks the 56th anniversary of the creation of the Council of Europe by the Treaty of London. It will coincide, almost to the day, with the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe. These events, apparently totally opposed in nature, will in fact be celebrated in the same spirit. A spirit of optimism and hope for the future. A spirit of peace and unity based on shared values, which will be the core message of the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government to be held in nearby Warsaw in ten days’ time.

 

The Warsaw Summit will be the culminating point of the Polish Chairmanship, which has made every effort, over the last six months, to bring Europe a step further, building on five priorities:

- strengthening the continent’s unity after the enlargement of the European Union;

- strengthening human rights;

- promoting dialogue between cultures as a precondition for tolerance and the resolution of conflicts;

- developing local democracy and trans-border cooperation;

- overcoming divisions of the past in Europe.

 

The Council of Europe, the oldest and geographically most far-reaching international Organisation in Europe, has progressed from 10 to 23 member states in its first 40 years of existence, then from 23 to 46 in the last 15 years, after the fall of the Berlin wall. Progress in our core values – democracy, human rights, the rule of law – has been following the same path. A path that nobody would have even dreamed 60 years ago! Since the end of the second world war, there have been conflicts in Europe, but peace and understanding between peoples has made considerable progress, and above all the totalitarianism that breeds intolerance and oppression has been eliminated from our continent.

 

I wish you all a successful conference and a good exchange of views. The Polish Chair – and indeed the Committee of Ministers as a whole - lends its full support to this occasion, coming as it does in the immediate run-up to the Third Summit. The success of this conference will be a message to the Summit that the member states of the Council of Europe are united in their concern that all Europeans should join to preserve the memory of the last decades, and to profit from the diversity of each others experiences, both positive and negative. “Historia magistra vitae est” : these were the words that Minister Rotfeld used  when he referred to our seminar in his presentation of the activities of the Polish Chair of the Committee of Ministers to the Parliamentary Assembly. Please allow me to use his conclusion last week as an introduction to our work today…