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(by Aleena Shakeel, CNSNews.com) – The United States hopes that the United Nations General Assembly will vote by the end of this week on a resolution that condemns “any denial of the Holocaust,” but as of Wednesday, dozens of nations had yet to indicate whether they would support it.
The United States Tuesday introduced the resolution, which is being seen as a direct response to Iran’s hosting of a Holocaust denial conference last month. The conference in Tehran included speeches that questioned the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate European Jewry during World War II and some that sought to undermine Israel as a state.
“The recent Holocaust denial conference sponsored by the government of Iran should serve as a warning to the entire international community,” the World Jewish Congress said in a statement Wednesday.
“With a steadily advancing nuclear capability, a long record of sponsoring terrorism and a president openly calling for the destruction of a U.N. member state, the lessons of the past need to be heeded and not denied,” it added, urging 118 ambassadors of U.N. member states to add their support to that of 73 nations that have already agreed to support the resolution.
Ambassadors from countries that haven’t committed to voting for the measure were also called on by the Anti-Defamation League to do so.
“We urge you to support this important declaration by the international community reinforcing that it will never forget the Holocaust and rejecting those who seek to deny it,” the group said this week.
It said the declaration is critical to ensuring that the world does not ignore current and future acts of genocide.
Washington is hoping for a vote by Friday, ahead of the United Nations’ Jan. 27 International Day of Commemoration in memory of Holocaust victims. This year’s observance, the second since the day was instituted, will be held on Monday.
Jan. 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz in 1945.
Reprinted here with permission from Cybercast News Service. Visit the website at CNSNews.com.
Questions
1. Define resolution.
2. a) What resolution did the U.S. introduce at the U.N. on Tuesday?
b) Why did the U.S. introduce this resolution?
3. a) What was the Holocaust? b) What is a Holocaust denier?
4. Why should the Holocaust denial conference sponsored by the government of Iran serve as a warning to the entire international community, according to the World Jewish Congress?
5. a) How many of the 191 U.N. member countries have so far agreed to support the resolution on the Holocaust?
b) Why do you think this is so?
Resources
Anyone who would deny the Holocaust does so out of hatred for the Jewish people. We should understand what the Holocaust was, and speak out strongly against any attempt to deny the facts of this most evil time in history. Learn more about the Holocaust by visiting the following websites:
- The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at ushmm.org
- The Auschwitz Memorial Museum at Auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/start/index.php
- The Holocaust page at the Jewish Virtual Library
Also, many books have been written about/by people who lived through the Holocaust. We suggest the following books that present stories about people who lived through it, and about their families, friends and neighbors who did not:
- The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom – Corrie ten Boom was a Christian leader in the Dutch Underground during WWII. With the aid of her family, she hid scores of Jews from the Nazi invaders.
- When Light Pierced the Darkness by Nechama Tec – Christian rescue of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland
- When Being Jewish Was a Crime by Rachmiel Frydland
- The Last Jew of Rotterdam by Ernest Cassutto
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