29 January 2007
The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a resolution condemning the denial of the Holocaust. The text, which was proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, was adopted by the 192-member General Assembly with only Iran voting against it. The resolution urges all UN member states "to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end." UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, unlike those of the 15-member UN Security Council, but carry moral and symbolic value.
The resolution is seen as a response to the recent Iranian sponsored conference in Tehran in which speakers questioned the Holocaust. The text did not name Iran, but the US and Israel wanted it to take note of the will of the international community. In 2005, the General Assembly proclaimed 27 January as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. On this day in 1945, the Soviet Army had liberated the Auschwitz death camp. Speaking before the adoption of the resolution, Iran's delegate Hossein Gharibi said the Israel had manipulated the sufferings of the Jewish people as a cover for crimes committed against the Palestinians, including ethnic cleansing and state terrorism. He said that Iran "truly dissociates [itself] from this entirely hypocritical political exercise." Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gillerman addressed the families of victims, saying "it is giving you back your personal history, which evil minds have tried to erase and rob you of. As you say your prayers today you can hear the whole world is praying with you, telling you that you are not alone."
Meanwhile, Polish president Lech Kaczynski said in a speech that "The truth about the Holocaust must be passed on from generation to generation". Speaking at a ceremony in the former Warsaw ghetto, the site of a Jewish uprising against the Nazis in 1943, Kaczynski pointed out: "We must oppose shameful attempts to deny the historical truth, in order that the biggest crime in human history never be forgotten." In 1940, several months after invading Poland in September 1939, the Nazis forced some 500,000 Jews into the Warsaw ghetto, surrounding it with a high wall. About 100,000 died inside from hunger and disease, and over 300,000 were sent to death camps.
