International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

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International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance logo

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance ( IHRA , German  International Alliance for Holocaust Remembrance ) is an intergovernmental institution founded in 1998 that brings together governments and experts with the aim of promoting and promoting education, research and remembrance in the field of the Holocaust worldwide, as well as commitments from the declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. The IHRA has 34 member countries, one partner country and seven observer countries.

Until January 2013 the organization was known as the "Task Force for international Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research". After being renamed, it used a new logo designed by Daniel Libeskind .

In 2018, Italy chaired the IHRA, followed by Luxembourg in 2019 with official Georges Santer . In March 2020, Germany took over the IHRA presidency from Luxembourg. The responsible coordinator in Berlin is Michaela Küchler , special commissioner for relations with Jewish organizations, Holocaust remembrance, anti-Semitism issues and international affairs of the Sinti and Roma at the Foreign Office . Above all, Germany wants to make progress in combating the denial and relativization of the Holocaust, explains the diplomat. It is planned to set up a Global Task Force for this purpose. Another focus of the work is still in the field of education.

organization

The organization was founded by the former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson in 1998. A visit to the Neuengamme concentration camp and the results of a Swedish opinion poll among schoolchildren, which showed that doubts about the Holocaust were spreading, were probably decisive for his commitment . The Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust took place from January 26th to 28th, 2000, bringing together high-level political representatives from more than forty countries with civil and religious communities, survivors, educators and historians. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel served as honorary chairman of the forum, and Professor Yehuda Bauer attended as the forum's senior academic advisor.

The chairmanship is held by the national governments on a rotating basis.

Yehuda Bauer is the honorary chairman of the IHRA , the central secretariat is in Berlin .

Fields of activity

The organization's mandate relates to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust and the IHRA's work is carried out in three core areas: education, commemoration and research. The IHRA supports external projects, but also carries out its own projects. The aim is to influence the political shaping of Holocaust-relevant topics and to advance research into aspects of the Holocaust that have so far been neglected. In 2007, the field of activity was expanded to include the genocide of the Roma and Sinti , genocide prevention and the fight against anti-Semitism .

Regarding remembrance, IHRA emphasizes the importance of the Holocaust as part of the collective memory of current and future societies, especially the cultural design of remembrance work through memorial events, memorials, museums, monuments and historical places in connection with the Holocaust. National Holocaust Remembrance Days as well as the annual International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust on January 27th, appointed by the United Nations , are supported. In the field of research, the IHRA advocates as free access to data as possible for scientific research: for example, through efforts to open up Holocaust-related archives and the development of international Holocaust research networks.

Definition of anti-Semitism by the IHRA

The IHRA plenary meeting on May 15, 2016, after deliberations between its 31 member countries, decided on the following working definition of anti-Semitism:

“Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews that can be expressed as hatred of Jews. Anti-Semitism, in word or deed, is directed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and / or their property as well as against Jewish community or religious institutions. In addition, the State of Israel, which is understood as a Jewish collective, can also be the target of such attacks. "

- International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

The IHRA lists the following current examples of anti-Semitism in public life, in the media, schools, in the workplace and in the religious sphere, which, taking into account the overall context, may include but are not limited to the following behavior.

"Examples:

  • Calling for the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist religious belief, as well as aiding or abetting or justifying such acts.
  • False, dehumanizing, demonizing or stereotypical accusations against Jews or the power of Jews as a collective - especially but not exclusively the myths about a Jewish world conspiracy or about the control of the media, economy, government or other social institutions by the Jews.
  • Making the Jews as a people responsible for actual or assumed misconduct of individual Jews, individual Jewish groups or even non-Jews.
  • The denial of the fact, the extent, the mechanisms (e.g. the gas chambers) or the intentionality of the genocide of the Jews by National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during the Second World War (Holocaust).
  • The accusation against the Jews as a people or the State of Israel for inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
  • The accusation against Jews that they feel more committed to the state of Israel or to allegedly existing worldwide Jewish interests than to the interests of their respective home countries.
  • Denying the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, for example by claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist undertaking.
  • The application of double standards by requiring Israel to behave that no other democratic state expects or requires.
  • The use of symbols and images associated with traditional anti-Semitism (e.g. the allegation of the murder of Christ or the ritual murder legend) to describe Israel or the Israelis.
  • Compare the current Israeli politics with the politics of the National Socialists.
  • Making Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel. "
- International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, May 26, 2016.

In 2017, prior to the FRG, Great Britain, Romania, Israel and Austria, this definition had "politically taken note of" for their respective countries. Most of the Assemblée Nationale in Paris adopted the definition on December 3, 2019.

The German Rectors' Conference adopted the IHRA definition in November 2019.

On January 17, 2020, the Italian government also adopted the IHRA definition.

Extension of the definition in Germany

On September 20, 2017, the Federal Cabinet took note of the working definition in the above quotation. The German Federal Government also referred to the expanded definition from the report of the Independent Expert Group on Antisemitism , which finally wrote on April 7, 2017: In addition, the State of Israel, which is understood as a Jewish collective, can also be the target of such attacks.

"The Federal Government recommends that the extended working definition be taken into account, particularly in school and adult education and in training in the areas of justice and the executive ... The cabinet decision ... also takes into account the concerns of the" Independent Expert Group on Anti-Semitism ", which the Federal Government. .. had asked for the fight against anti-Semitism to be given more importance and visibility at the national level. "

- Federal government :

Members

In December 2019 the IHRA had 34 members, plus 1 partner country and 7 countries with observer status.

Partner country

Countries with observer status

Partner organizations and similar references

The organization currently has eight permanent international partner organizations that have observer status at IHRA: United Nations , UNESCO , Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIR), International Tracing Service ( ITS) Arolsen, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights , the European Union as a whole, the Council of Europe and the Jewish Claims Conference .

In 2010 the IHRA formalized its relations with the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , "Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights".

The EU -Institution European Parliament had on 1 June 2017 a far-reaching decision against anti-Semitism, the European Commission asked to apply for observer status at the IHRA. This was complied with, and in December 2019 the EU was designated as a partner organization.

Others

A controversy arose in 2009 when Norway, as the presiding country, proclaimed a national year of commemoration for the writer and Nazi sympathizer Knut Hamsun .

In the discussion about the tunnel system of the Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke in the Austrian concentration camp Gusen , the IHRA positioned itself for the conservation.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research Becomes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance , The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program, accessed January 30, 2019. Holocaust Memorial Day: Lessons for the future , Holocaust Educational Trust Blog from January 24, 2013, accessed January 30, 2019.
  2. ↑ IHRA 2020/2021 - German Presidency Accessed on July 13, 2020
  3. ^ Alliance for Remembrance , Jüdische Allgemeine, February 28, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  4. ^ History of the ITF ( Memento December 7, 2010 on the Internet Archive ), Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  5. ↑ ITF Chair's Declaration on Teaching about the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti PDF from June 13, 2007, accessed on March 23, 2010.
  6. ↑ Holocaust Remembrance Day 2010
  7. ^ A b Working definition of anti-Semitism , International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
  8. ^ FRG: Foreign Office. In the original "politically endorsed", an unusual term outside of specialist circles
  9. ↑ Le Monde, La résolution controversée sur la lutte contre l'antisémitisme adoptée par les députés. December 3, 2019, literally "adopté", adopted
  10. ↑ HRK
  11. ↑ Salvini speaks out in favor of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel , Jüdische Zeitung, January 21, 2020. Accessed January 20, 2020.
  12. ↑ Bundestag printed paper 18/11970
  13. ↑ Dt. Bundestag
  14. ↑ Countries & Membership. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  15. ↑ a b as of December 2018
  16. ^ "Coopération entre le Conseil de l'Europe et l'Holocaust Task Force", Informations d'Autriche , No. 22/08, November 2008 [1]
  17. ↑ OSCE rights office, Holocaust education task force formalize cooperation on combating antisemitism , source
  18. ↑ Resolution, point 18
  19. ↑ Norway: Celebrating Nazi-sympathizer unrelated to Holocaust education ( Memento from September 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Haaretz, July 21, 2009, accessed on March 28, 2010
  20. ↑ Statement of the ITF Chair ( Memento of August 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Holocaust Taskforce, July 20, 2009, accessed on March 28, 2010
  21. ↑ "'" Bergkristall "Gusen. To have concentration camp tunnels for free. ” On oe24.at from July 1, 2009, accessed on March 27, 2010.