Obama with Weisel at ceremony
Photo: AP
Obama vows to battle Holocaust denial
Speaking at remembrance ceremony in Washington, US president says 'we must fight silence, which is evil's greatest co-conspirator'
WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama spoke at a Holocaust Remembrance Day event at the US Capitol Thursday, and said he was committed to battling those who deny the atrocities of World War II.
The annual ceremony was held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened, who perpetrate every form of intolerance," the president said. "We have an opportunity as well as an obligation to confront these scourges… That is my commitment as president."
Obama at Washington ceremony (Photo: AP)
He added, "How do we ensure that 'never again' isn't an empty slogan or merely an aspiration, but also a call to action? I believe we start by doing what we are doing today – by bearing witness, by fighting the silence that is evil's greatest co-conspirator."
Obama also mentioned his visit to Yad Vashem and said that the nation of Israel had risen "from the destruction of the Holocaust."
The US president's speech follows that of his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the UN conference on racism in Geneva earlier this week. Among other things, the Holocaust-denying leader accused Israel of rendering a nation homeless as well as of cruelty and racism.
In his speech, Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor compared the Nazi atrocities to the Iranian threat, explaining that the regime was detrimental to world peace and threatening to destroy Israel. He also thanked the US for its friendship.
Author Elie Wiesel, who founded Washington's Holocaust Museum, also expressed concern over the Iranian threat, while recounteing his experience at the UN conference in Geneva.
"Will the world ever learn?" he asked, adding that a prominent leader had taken advantage of a UN forum in order to do harm to Israel. "Why was he invited?" the writer asked.
Weisel said the world "would never learn" because "if Auschwitz could not cure the world of anti-Semitism, what will?"
