«escudo» «membre1» «membre2»€¦ · «escudo» «membre1» «membre2» it is also important...

"2006 - Año de homenaje al Dr. Ramón CARRILLO"

«ESCUDO» «MEMBRE1» «MEMBRE2»

1

“… The past needs to be helped,

needs to be reminded to the ones who forget, to the frivolous, to the indifferent ones…” Vladimir Jankelevitch

REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA TO BE PRESENTED TO THE TASK FORCE FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATIO N, REMEMBRANCE, AND RESEARCH (ITF): Argentina has been a full member of the ITF since 2002, is committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust of January 2000 and will implement policies and programs to support Holocaust education, remembrance and research. To that effect, Argentina has prepared a report that registers all the activities carried out from July 2005 to May 2006 related to the Holocaust. The work sent by the different competent State areas and NGOs interested in the Holocaust education, remembrance and research was taken into account. This report indicates not only the Argentina’s commitment to the ITF, but also a strong conviction that the Holocaust remembrance is closely connected with the need of guaranteeing the memory, truth and justice in every case of truth and Human Rights. That is why the promotion and protection of Human Rights are an important part of State policies of our country, at the same time that they are considered a priority for the current National Government.

1. Undersecretariat of Quality and Equity. Ministry of Education, Technology and Science

The Ministry of Education, Technology and Science promotes a series of initiatives to create shared environments for questioning and thinking about memory, truth, justice and human rights at the educational institutions all over the country. The intention is to promote reflection activities and generate a moment to think with the next generations about the recent past. When looking back to the recent past, the 20th Century is full of traumatic situations of war, genocides and state terrorism. Events without precedents have interrupted the generational transmission, although there are some who know what has happened. The cultural work as regards the reconstruction of memory after Shoah is clear example for all the peoples that work to have a fresh memory. Shoah is one of the most terrible events in the history of humanity. Understanding its scope, all its complexity, is part of the challenge of building a collective memory that allows us to think about a different future. Educating on memory is also teaching respect for human rights, against discrimination and intolerance. It means collaborating with the development of the most democratic societies open to cultural, religious, political, social and genre differences. Therefore, we consider that ‘education and memory’ is a subject that requires state policies that promote a debate in our societies. Fully convinced that the defense of Human Rights should be promoted, we think that truth and justice should go hand in hand with working on memory by the new generations within their academic experience. For this purpose, the Ministry of Education, Technology and Science has incorporated April 19 as the date to commemorate the Day of Cultural Diversity according to Resolution Nº126/00. It has been established as a



2

remembrance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) and as a way of giving honor to the Holocaust victims during the Second World War, but mostly, as a way to preserve memory. During 2006, the Ministry of Education, Technology and Science, since the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the last Coup d’Etat in our country, has promoted a series of initiatives through the project called 30 Years After the Coup d’Etat. Within the hard process of consolidating our democracy, it is necessary to rebuild the reflection and dialogue channels and build collective ways of thinking of reality. The adult generations carry the chances of renewal. Both the generations that underwent the State terrorism and the new ones that were born under democracy, but they live in a context marked by those events and require shared environments for thinking. Only through transmission it will be possible to link the past and the future, involving the new generations in playing the main role in history and in imagining better worlds. 1. 1 Activities in 2006 • Publications because of the 30th anniversary of the coup d’etat: 30 Ejercicios de Memoria Book (30 exercises for memory). Many figures from different generations and from all over the country were invited to do an “exercise for memory”. The guests were thirty writers, poets, educators, psychoanalysts, historians, journalists, moviemakers, artists, photographers, actors and actresses. They had to write a brief text from an image that they found representative of their own experience during that time. The compilation resulted in the book, which was distributed all over the country among high schools and academies for teachers. Number of copies: 32,5000 • Materials for classrooms: Three posters were designed to convey the theme in different ways: through Literature, Music and Arts. One of the posters is for Primary Schools; another is for high schools; and the other one for academies for teachers. These materials were distributed all over the country among primary schools, high schools and academies for teachers. Number of posters: 258,000 • National Meeting of Planning and Curriculum Directors: A National Meeting of Planning and Curriculum Directors will be held to work on the subject Education and Memory: Shoah as a key event in the 20th Century. The purpose is to generate an environment for discussion that permits, through the experiences of other people who have worked on the subject, to think about ways to handle it during classes all over the country. • Training for Teachers: A series of activities have been held with the academies for teachers since educators are fundamental as they are and will be in charge of transmitting and recreating culture. As they are protagonists in local contexts, these institutions are able to make activities committed to the different sociocultural realities in our country. Moreover, training on education and memory is being offered. • International Seminar: Between the Past and the Future. Youngsters and Transmission of the Recent Argentine Experience. The purpose of this seminar is to create an environment for the exchange and dialogue among different generations, where several interpretations, questions and experiences about the recent history could be discussed. The students of the academies for teachers will have a main role. In each region, previously to this seminar, pre-seminars will be held where the papers to be presented will be worked on. • Planning and design of the priority of educational contents (NAP) for the last years of high schools. Within NAP, the theme of Shoah will be promoted, since international history of the 20th Century is seen at that level. Reflection upon the recent past is relevant and within the relation between education and memory. For this reason, activities on respect and human rights will be held so as to prevent any tendency to discrimination in each of our country’s provinces.



3

• In articulation with Human Rights Organizations and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo: We are working on the production of materials for the first three grades and the fourth, fifth and sixth grades of primary schools: told short-stories, with pictures, with the printed story and a booklet as Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo has suggested. • Moreover, a video will be recorded on Abuelas… explaining what is “Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo” and storytellers, actors and actresses will tell the selected short stories. Poppets’ images, graphics, body movements, etc will accompany the telling within the agreement with the National University of San Martin. • Distribution of books among high schools according to the agreement with the Human Rights Secretariat: The Ministry of Education, Technology and Science signed an agreement with the Human Rights Secretariat to organize a plan of action. It includes the purchase and distribution of books on recent history and human rights, among high schools all over the country. 2. Secretariat of Foreign Affairs / Undersecretariat of Foreign Affairs/ Department of Human Rights. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade an d Worship. Argentina has supported the Resolution about the Holocaust Commemoration presented by Israel during the 60º United Nations General Assembly (GUNA-2005). The resolution stipulates that January 27 will be established as the Annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. For this reason, Argentina has proven that she firmly believes in this, as she approved during the 61º UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR-2005) the Resolution about the “inadmissibility of certain practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”. There the Assemble “would also stress that such practices did injustice to the memory of the countless victims of crimes against humanity committed in the Second World War and poisoned the minds of young people, particularly during the sixtieth anniversary of victory in the Second World War and the liberation of Auschwitz and other concentration camps, and that such practices were incompatible with the United Nations Charter and the Organization’s goals and principles”. Argentina is fully committed to the right to know the truth, the right to justice and the right to memory. As an example, the resolution 2005/66 “Right to the truth” was approved at the 61 CHR. The project was introduced by Argentina, becoming the first one presented by our country and the first one to be approved by an intergovernmental body related to the subject. The CHR held that “States should preserve archives and other evidence concerning gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law to facilitate awareness of such violations, to investigate allegations and to provide victims with access to an effective remedy in accordance with international law”. As the Holocaust was a human tragedy, one of the principal antecedents for the development of international law for human rights, naturally, the contents of this resolution are also applied in this subject. In the 61 CHR, Argentina cosponsored the resolution on “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” presented by Armenia. The paragraphs of the project agreed with the Argentine point of view that the best way to struggle against this offense is through prevention, by attacking the root of intolerance and marginalization. Education is one of the fundamental instruments to achieve this goal. Within this context, Argentina takes part in the “Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research”.



4

It is also important to point out that Argentina has actively participated in the Forum that were summoned by the Kingdom of Sweden within 2000-2004 on Prevention of Genocide. At the first Forum, Argentina committed herself to preserve the Holocaust remembrance through education and other activities. The Department of Human Rights has been working to fulfill its commitment with the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust (January 2000) and to implement policies and programs which support the Holocaust education, remembrance and research. The activities are listed below. This Department has tirelessly worked on the application of public policies related to Human Rights. That is the case of the National Plan against Discrimination, its monitoring and implementation (it is explained under the subtitle Activities in 2005). The activities related to the Holocaust education, remembrance and research are part of it. Finally, it is important to highlight the fresh Argentine Governmental impetus. Although Argentine delegation has committed itself to the ITF since 2002, it announced last February a Resolution in which three National Ministers are involved (Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs). Its main goal is to guarantee the permanent treatment of the Holocaust and an active and concrete participation of the Argentine delegation in the ITF plenary sessions. 2.1 Activities in 2006 • Argentina has been a full member since 2002 of The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF), created in Stockholm that year. • According to the Resolution 202 SER /52 SE /6 DH, February 10, 2006, the Secretaries of the Ministries of Justice, Education and Foreign Affairs committed themselves to an active participation in subjects related to the Holocaust, and in order to bring their plan to fruition they created a Permanent Consultative Council, made up of government officials and NGOs that are interested in Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. • During 2006, the Human Rights Department will be in charge of the pro-tempore Secretariat, recently designated as the Focal Point of the State Department for subjects related to the Holocaust and ITF. Then the pro-tempore Secretariat will pass to the Ministry of Justice in 2007 and, after that, to the Ministry of Education in 2008. • By virtue of that institutional obligation, the Department of Human Rights frequently holds meetings to prepare itself for the Argentine participation at the ITF with representatives of the Ministries of Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs and with NGOs that are involved in the subject: Museo del Holocausto (Buenos Aires Shoah Museum), Delegación de Asociaciones Isaraelitas Argentinas (DAIA) (Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations), Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) (Argentine-Israelite Mutual Aid Association), Simon Wiesenthal Center, B’nai B’rith, Confraternidad Argentina Judeo Cristiana (CAJC) (Argentine Jewish Christian Fraternity), Asociación Nuevos Derechos del Hombre (New Human Rights Association), Consejo Superior de Educación Católica Conferencia Episcopal Argentina (CONSUDEC) (Superior Council of Catholic Education Argentine Episcopal Conference). • The goal of these meetings is to exchange information and create better ways to include the Holocaust education in the different educational levels. • A seminar on the National Plan against Discrimination (passed by national Decree 1086/2005 on September 2005) is going to take place in the San Martin Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building during 2006. (More characteristics under the subtitle Activities 2005)



5

• The Department of Human Rights continues working on the implementation of the National Plan against Discrimination as a member of the Group of Coordination for the monitoring and implementation of the Plan, during the meetings called -every two weeks- by the INADI, organism that presides the meetings. • As a consequence of its active participation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs committed itself, at the end of last year, to carry out a national seminar for the launch of the National Plan against Discrimination, including different State instituti ons and civilian society. The goal is not only to promote the contents but also to train people of the government, civilian organizations and those involved with the struggle against discrimination; promote the study of the causes of discrimination, its negative consequences and the proper policies for the eradication of the it, through concrete and practical measures. 2.2 Activities in 2005 • Argentina participated in the last ITF plenary session in Warsaw, Poland. As well as she participated in the Krakow plenary session. • Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together wit h the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) and the Secretariat for Human Rights (Ministry of Justice), coordinated the elaboration of the National Plan against Discrimination, approved by National Decree 1086/2005 of September 7, 2005, according to the commitment taken at the “World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” (Durban 2001). • One of the characteristics of Plan is that it was not prepared only as an academic project but as the result of an interdisciplinary work of different or ganisms –governmental and non governmental- and more than 300 interviews all over the country with victims and victimized groups of discrimination1. • This work, which has not got a precedent, had the financial support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), which was administrated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). As we have mentioned, the Plan is the most complete diagnosis ever done about discrimination in Argentine society and has 247 concrete proposals to struggle against discrimination. These proposals are expected to impact in the elaboration of national policies. • The Plan includes diagnoses divided by areas, including the diagnosis of the anti-Semitism in Argentina. It includes a brief explanation of the beginning of anti-Semitism in some sectors of the Argentine society (mostly aristocrats and dominants), as a consequence of the massive Jewish immigration between the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. It also explains the different anti Jewish expressions in literature and theories of that time, pointing out that the culminating moments were during the celebrations of the Centenary of the Country (in 1910) and, with grater virulence, in the “Tragic Week” (January 1919), where there were aggressions against associations, businesses and houses owned by the Jewish people throughout the country. These facts strongly marked the Jewish presence in the country that, in many cases, had arrived hoping to escape from European experiences of persecution. • The chapter also indicates that as a result of the aggressions mentioned, anti-Semitism settled in with strength in certain institutions, especially within Justice and Security Forces. It expresses that since that moment it “is difficult to track Jewish presence in Argentine politics” prior to 1983, for instance in Foreign

1 People from Ushuaia and Río Grande cities (Province of Tierra del Fuego), Córdoba and Rio Cuarto cities (Provincia of Córdoba), la Mendoza city (Province of Mendoza), La Plata city (Province of Buenos Aires), Salta, Oran y Tartagal cities (Province of Salta), Formosa city (Provincia of Formosa). 300 interviews were made, 600 practical projects were taken and 50 questionnaires or written contributions were received from these groups.



6

Affairs and Justice System. Anti-Semitism “...was used as ‘weapon’ both in the nationalist coup d’etat of 1943 and in the political conflicts of the sixties, by diverse nationalistic and xenophobic groups, with aggressions in the streets and damage to Jewish institutions”2. • In connection with the coup d’etat of 1976-1983, the chapter shows that the military dictatorship institutionalized this latent anti-Semitism. The analysis concludes that “the rates of detained-disappeared Jews surpass ten times their presence in the population” 3. It underlines that diverse studies consider it possible that the Jewish belonging has also played a role in the selection of the victims or, as indicated by some testimonies of survivors, in the possibilities of liberation. There are numerous documented testimonies of the victims of State terrorism that indicate the “special treatment which the Jewish prisoners during their permanence at the clandestine centers of detention of the last military Dictatorship were put under”4. • Finally, the chapter indicates that nowadays researchers and demographers estimate that the Jewish presence in Argentina would be slightly inferior to the 200,000 members, having registered a peak of 300,000 members at the beginning of the decade of 1960. It adds that there were a diminution of fierceness and characteristics of State anti-Semitism after the return of democracy in 1983. Some relevant facts, in this direction, are the sanctioning of the 1998 Anti-discriminatory law (N 23.592), the creation of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) in 1995 or the sanctioning of the laws that authorize public and private employees to respect their denominational holidays (law N 24.571 for Jewish holidays and law N 24.757 for Muslim holidays). There is also an increase of Jewish presence in ranks of State management that can be noticed. • Nevertheless, it concludes that these advances are dimmed by present impunity and the lack of investigation result of the anti-Semitic attacks of 1992 (against the Israeli Embassy) and in 1994 (against the building of the AMIA-DAIA, seat of the organized Jewish community in our country). 3. Secretariat of Worship. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship. The Secretariat of Worship is the nexus between the State and the different cults that exist in Argentina. It has a plural, open and clear approach to the relationships among different religions and the State. The Secretariat has as a goal to guarantee, promote and encourage freedom, peaceful coexistence and dialogue among the religions of Argentina, promoting the mutual understanding and the coexistence in diversity. Regarding this subject, the commitment taken by the Secretariat of Worship is based on the promotion of inclusion policies and on the stimulus of freedom of thinking, consciousness and religion, and rights guarantee by the National Constitution and by the Treaties that our country has subscribed. The good relationship with the different religious organizations of the country, particularly with the representatives of several Jewish institutions, helped to prepare different activities together; some of them related to Shoah and others with more open characteristic, in connection with discrimination and xenophobia. Some of them are summarized below. 3.1 Activities in 2006 • On May 15, 16 and 17, 2006, the symposium “Holocaust-Shoah. Its effects on theology and Christian life, in Argentina and Latin-America” was presented in the San Martin Palace, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The symposium was organized in order to study the Shoah from the Christian perspective and by the Secretariat of Worship, the Confederación Argentina Judeo-Cristiana, the Faculty of Theology of the

2 Ibídem. 3 Ibídem. 4 Ibídem.



7

Catholic University of Argentina and Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos (ISEDET) (Superior Evangelic Institute for Theological Studies). • On May 4, 2006, the PhD Régine Azria (University of La Sorbonne, Paris – University of Jerusalem) spoke about “Judaism Sociology” in front of the students of the del Instituto del Servicio Exterior de la Nación (ISEN), only organism that selects, shapes and trains the members of the Argentine diplomacy. The Secretariat of Worship and French-Argentine Center of High Studies of the University of Buenos Aires organized the activity, as part of an agreement to promote academic and scientific activities related to religion. • On January 27, 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DAIA (political umbrella of the Jewish community in Argentina) and the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust headed in the San Martin Palace the ceremony of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, passed on November 1, 2005 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, with the const of 104 countries. The opening was in charged of the Under Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Roberto García Moritán. 3.2 Activities in 2005 • On November 25, 2005, there was a ceremony in the National Congress where the Law Project to declare the 25 of November as the “Day of Freedom of Consciousness and Freedom of Religion” was formally presented to the Executive. The mentioned project incentives that, on that day, schools and media promote activities to encourage the knowledge of the different religions. The date was selected because of November 25, 1981, when the United Nations passed the “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief” • In 2005, the Secretariat of Worship together with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology compiled and edited the publication (in paper and CD) “Coexistence in cultural diversity. Compilation of laws, treaties and declarations”. This publication was prepared for educators, officials, social leaders, members of NGOs and technical teams of governmental areas. It was created to improve the access to the documents about cultural diversity. • The Secretariat sponsored and declared the book Everyone under the same sky – Dialogue among Catholic, Jewish and Muslim cultures (Edhasa, Buenos Aires, 2005) of interest. The work was gestated by the Secretariat and it is the result of several chats among three representatives of the monotheistic religions -Presbyter Guillermo Marcó, Rabbi Daniel Goldman and the Islamic leader Omar Abboud- and the journalist and Secretariat advisor Ricardo Lopez Dusil. • In October 2005, the Secretariat, together with the Confraternidad Judeo-Cristiana and the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), carried out a meeting to commemorate the 40º anniversary of the Nostra Aetate of Second Vatican Council. The “Importance of Judaism in the present Christian thinking” was analyzed during the day. • One of the most important events connected with inter-religious relations took place on September 2005, when for the first time in the Argentine history –and maybe in the world- a Muslim leader officiated a religious ceremony in a synagogue of Buenos Aires. This happened in the Great Temple of the Israelite Congregation of Argentina when Omar Abboud –secretary of Culture of the Islamic Center of Argentina- co-celebrated with Rabbi Sergio Bergman and Priest Carlos Acaputo a religious ceremony to pay tribute to Adel Mohamed Made, president of the Islamic Center of Argentina who had died recently and was an important player in the contribution of inter-religious dialogue in the country. The ceremony had the State support and counted with the presence of the whole staff of the Secretariat.



8

4. National Secretary of Human Rights. Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Priorities of this Secretary and those of this government through this state agency are related not only to the promotion and defense of human rights nationwide, but also conducting research on social behavior and events that had led to systematic state violations of human rights. In that respect, the commitment of the Argentinean state to the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF) is central to this agency mission, for the unique opportunity the Task Force offer to our actual debate and public policy decisions this government has been committed to, in the areas of impunity, truth, justice and reparation; while at the same time honoring our pledge to educate, remember and research on the Holocaust. It is because of this Secretary mandate to carry out the national public policy on matters of human rights and human rights violations, so vivid and current in our society, that involves dissemination, education and research among other activities that we are certain that our involvement in the IFT will have a direct impact on current debates and public policy decisions in facing the massive human rights violations of the 1976-1983 dictatorship. In this twofold approach to our participation at the IFT, the Secretary of Human Rights is and will be a catalyst and executor for the sate commitment to disseminate and educate the public on the holocaust and at the same time learn from the European experience in dealing within the difficult arena of preserving the lessons of the past while pursuing a present of justice and reparation for victims. The constant participation of high level authorities of this Secretary on all the activities centered to commemorate and remember the Holocaust and contemporary expressions of anti-Semitism in Argentina stated here along with proposed projects demonstrates that our membership to the IFT is core to our vision of public policy on Human Rights. 4.1 Activities and government support or participation during 2005/2006 • In 2007 the Secretary of Human Rights will hold the pro-tempore presidency of the IFT Argentinean working group. During that period we will devote financial resources to endorse our obligations and promote trips, meetings, printed materials, workshops or seminars as needed. • During 2005 the National Institute Against Discrimination (INADI), in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and this Secretary investigated, researched and produced the National Plan Against Discrimination, that includes a diagnosis and plan of action recommendations on all types of discrimination based on religion and ethnicity, as well as extremist groups activities based on national-socialist ideas in the country. • The Secretary of Human Rights drafted a law for the compensation of victims of the terrorist attack against the Jewish organization AMIA as a part of an agreement under the supervision of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights • The secretary of Human Rights during the period 2005-2006 participated on all activities related to the remembrance and education of the Holocaust. We here highlight some of the main activities in which high authorities or professional staff participated actively, with no further details of the events as they have been already stated in this paper by other organizations: • January 27th 2006, Department of Foreign Affairs, DAIA and Memory of the Holocaust Foundation, ceremony at the Chancellery for the Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust Day. • May 15-17th 2006, Holocaust-Shoah Symposium at the National Department of Foreign Affairs.



9

• March 17th, 2006 ceremony to remember the Israel Embassy attack, survivors and victims. Public audience at the City Government Palace for the petition to erect a monument to the Memory of the Shoah at Puerto Madero district. • Ceremony in commemoration of the 63rd anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto uprising at the Buenos Aires Museum of the Holocaust. • Remembrance Ceremony for the 60 years of the liberation at the Auschwitz concentration camp. 4.2 Projects proposed by the Secretary of Human Rights, Department of Justice for the period 2006-2007 • Bringing to states around the country in which this Secretary has delegations or observatories for human rights, exhibitions and/or workshops on the holocaust, partnering for these proposed activities with institutions and organizations already working on the issues such as the Museum of Holocaust and other local organizations. The intention of this project is to support the efforts in education and dissemination of the holocaust of existing institutions and organizations and made them accessible to state personnel at the national and provincial levels. • In partnership with the National Department of Education this Secretary will be in charge of writing and advising the Department of Education team of experts devoted to the inclusion of the Holocaust on the national education curricula. Our work will be focused on the areas of Human Rights related to crimes against humanity, international human rights bodies and treaties related to the II World War and the Holocaust, reparations, genocide, and all the other areas of our expertise that will contribute to create the educational tools and materials for High School students nationwide. • We will support the efforts needed to achieve a conductive environment at the federal level to grant that all states in the country endorse the commitment to include the holocaust on their educational systems. As a federal country with a decentralized educational system and curricula, this is key for the initiative and needs the support and coordination at all levels of the federal state and provinces. • The Secretary of Human Rights will foster all initiatives that can lead to learn from the European experience in dealing with the legacy of II World war concentration camps and reparation laws as we believe will help our actual work on Argentina’s detention camps. For that matter we expect to promote on-site visits and information sharing schemes on the areas of: recovering the sites, their use for education and dissemination, the controversy over museums or remembrance sites and their relation to the communities surrounding them. 5. Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) (Ar gentine-Israelite Mutual Aid Association) • AMIA has already sent to the Task Force all the activities it has held in connection with the Holocaust, since July 2005. 6. Confraternidad Argentina Judeo Cristiana (CAJC) - (Argentine Jewish Christian Fraternity) • The Confraternidad Argentina Judeo Cristiana (CAJC), according to the objectives of the Task Force, took initiative and worked with the Secretariat of Worship and educational institutions on the arrangements of the First International Symposium of Christian Theology: “Holocaust-Shoah. Its effects in theology and Christian life, in Argentina and Latin-America” which took place in the San Martin Palace, Ministry of Foreign Affair, the 15, 16 and 17 of May 2006. Statements and objectives:



10

• After the Second World War, the World –especially Christianity- had to assume the horrors that the Jewish community had to live in Europe. • Churches made a necessary introspection to re-elaborate the foundations of the coexistence and recognition of men. They review their individual histories, looked for their responsibilities, searched for new paths to order the power of man. Catholic and protestant synods and assemblies made magnificent declarations, before and after the Second Vatican Council -summoned by the Pope John XXIII-, which includes Declaration “Nostra Aetate”. Other Christian churches prepared similar documents to deepen in the Christian – Jewish relationship. There were many ecclesiastic testimonies. • Latin America needs to move forward in this process. It cannot be deny that there were positive gestures and steps forward. Many national commissions and diocesans cover the subject and there exists a small sector that is well informed and sensitized. However, they represent just a small part of the Christian communities. The mentality and, in consequence, the predications and catechism, and the common conversations among Christians, are not freed from the anti Jewish stereotype and discrimination, which increase at political and economical crises. That is why a clear and forceful theology that influence on predications, catechism, and Christian formation is necessary.} • The willing of the Confraternidad Argentina Judeo Cristiana was took in account and obtained the support of the Secretariat of Worship, the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Argentina and the University Institute ISEDET to organize the First International Symposium. • The Christian vision of the Holocaust-Shoah is of vital importance. The Shoah must be studied from the Christian theology, with the participation of important catholic and protestant theologians, adding the opinion of rabbis. And bearing in mind the explicit message of the Christian churches: It is not the same before and after the Holocaust-Shoah. 7. Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA) (Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations) DAIA is the Argentine Jewish community representative entity. Its creation was due to the Nazism in Europe and its infiltration in Argentina; that is why its objective is to defend the dignity of Argentine Judaism, struggling against Nazism and anti-Semitism. To do that, it works with political, judicial and educational areas. Before the Second World War, DAIA has insistently denounced Hitler’s Nazi regime and, after the War, it helped the victims of the conflict by helping the Jewish who were escaping from War enter Argentina. DAIA, since the creation of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), has carried out its mission and tried to involve Argentina into it. DAIA together with AMIA, B’nai B’rith and the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust has favored the attendance of the Argentine Jewish organizations in Luxemburg, Italy and Poland (Warsaw) meetings and has proposed the creation of a Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This Committee, once approved, was constituted with representatives of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice and the Secretariat of Education of the Ministry of Education and with delegates from Jewish and non Jewish organizations which are interested in the Holocaust education, remembrance and research. 7.1 Activities in 2005 -2006



11

• The Center for Social Studies, a department created in 1967, permanently trains Jewish and non-Jewish teachers, with the help of experts in education of the Shoah. • In the last year, there were trainings in San Juan Province, Tres Arroyos city and Mar del Plata city. It is important to remark DAIA’s participation in t he Mar del Plata symposium in Psychiatrics where the researchers expounded about “Holocaust”. • With DAIA as a sponsor, the professionals of the Center for Social Studies give the subject “Nazism and Fascism: its impact in Argentina” in the Faculty of Politic Science at the University of Buenos Aires and “Nazism and Fascism: its impact in the Argentine media” in the Faculty of Communication Science at the University of Buenos Aires. • DAIA regularly publishes the “Report on Anti-Semitism in Argentina” (unique in its characteristics in Latin America) with the anti-Semitic aggressions registered, the denial of the Shoah, the activity of pro Nazis groups, also with the mention of the positive actions of the State to fight against anti-Semitism. This publication has counted with the sponsor of the Task Force in Argentina since 2004. • In 2004, DAIA signed an agreement with the Secretariat of Education of Buenos Aires city to distribute the “Report on anti-Semitism in Argentina” in every public school of Buenos Aires and to publish didactic bibliography about the Shoah. The first ones of these publications were “The resistance at the Warsaw Ghetto” (also with the sponsor of the Task Force in Buenos Aires), the social science journal “Indice” (a very prestigious publication in our country) and “History of the Argentine Jewish community, its contribution and participation in the country” where there are several chapters about the Shoah. “History of the anti-Semitism in Argentina” is being prepared. • DAIA develops the “Proyecto Testimonio”, which preceded the creation of the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA). The publication has a thematic archive that documents how the State and the Argentine society acted in relation to the Holocaust. The work recounts the beginning of the Nazism and fascism in Europe, the immigration to Argentina, before, during and after the Second World War, and the entrance and stay in Argentina of Nazi war criminals, collaborators and spies of the Axis Berlin-Rome. “Proyecto Testimonio” contains two volumes edited by Planeta. The second part of the project, about the role of the Argentine media during Nazism and Jewish persecution will be soon presented publicly. • DAIA will present different traveling exhibitions in public areas about subjects related to the Jewish community. The first of them, “Nazism and Shoah impact in Argentina” will be set in June at the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum. • Every June 20, Argentina commemorates the Flag’s Day and the students of 4th grade promise loyalty to it, by holding their arms outstretched, saying, “yes, I promise”. After DAIA’s initiative, the Secretariat of Education of Buenos Aires City and the Province of Tucuman established a regulation on July 17, 2005 that forbidden this kind of gesture that repeated Nazis formalities. • DAIA interacts, as a part of its diffusion programs, with security forces of Argentina, giving them information about the Shoah. • During 2005, DAIA carried out a program to honor the victims of the Shoah in different Europe embassies in our country. There were commemorations in the embassies of Romania, Slovakia and Netherlands, and there will be others in the embassies of Italy, France, Belgium and Sweden. • The construction of a Memorial for the Victims of the Shoah in Buenos Aires city was approved in 2006 after DAIA presented the project for the National Law in 1995. The regulation was achieved in 2000.



12

• Following the Resolution of the United Nations of November 1, 2005, for which January 27 was established as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, DAIA, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , organized an important commemoration in the San Martin Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The commemoration has an important repercussion. It was headed by the president of DAIA, the president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Garcia Moritán. • DAIA is in charge, since 1953, of the Central Ceremony for the Holocaust Remembrance, which bring together a large audience. In 2006, following the principles of the Task Force of nationalizing the Shoah remembrance, the ceremony was declared of legislative interest by the Senate of the Nation and took place in the Teatro Colón, main theater of the country. The main speaker was the First Lady, national senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Likewise, the deputy president of the Republic, the head of the Buenos Aires city government, the minister of Justice and Human Rights, the minister of Education, the secretary of Foreign Affairs in charge of the ministry, the head of Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several deputies, senators, diplomats and representative of the security forces were present. • As regards the anniversary of the 70º anniversary of the Nuremberg trail, DAIA will organize, together with the Faculty of Law and Politic Science of the University of La Matanza, the seminar: “60 years after the Nuremberg Trial. What have we learnt?” addressed to philosophers, intellectuals, lawyers, jurists and students on July 4, 2006.

8. Buenos Aires Shoa Museum

The Buenos Aires Shoa Museum main goal is to keep alive the testimonial conscience of the Holocaust, that is, the massive killings of six millions of Jews, just because they were so, perpetrated by the nazis and their accomplices during World War II. It is an ethical mandate of our generation to give account of the horror that implied the Shoah, with the double purpose of avoiding that its victims are forgotten and to prevent possible repetitions.

This goal is accomplished by means of an intense and profound educative task, aimed especially at young students of middle school and universities, of the Army, the Police Forces, the penitentiary service, the Ministry of Defence, whose objectives are: to make society aware of the dangers that carry racism and xenophobia, to avoid the re-emergence of ideologies and events that lead to the perpetration of the Holocaust; to teach the respect of the different; to honour the victims of the Holocaust with the Memory and the survivors with continuity and transmission.

8.1 Activities in 2006 • The annual commemoration of Yom Hashoah, International Holocaust Remembrance Day: A ceremony was held in the Palacio San Martín; the speakers were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto García Moritán and a holocaust survivor. • The Bombing of the Israeli Embassy March 17, 1992 – March 17, 2006: The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust (Foundation to preserve the remembrance of the Holocaust) together with survivors, relatives and friends attended the ceremony to commemorate the remembrance of the victims.



13

• The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust attended the public hearing in the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in March regarding the set up of a monument to the remembrance of Shoah in Puerto Madero. • A collective agreement with FLACSO was signed. • Nunca más (March 24, 1976-2006): The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust- expressed its outright rejection to any way of subjugation of people and democratic institutions and support of the remembrance of Auschwitz and ESMA, in favor of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights. It was during the 30th anniversary of the coup d’etat in 1976, when the longest and darkest night of Argentine history began. • The Latin American Congress on Teaching and Learning about Holocaust-Shoah will take place in Buenos Aires on October 25, 26 and 27, 2006. The agenda includes: remembrance, transmission pedagogy, particularity of Shoah, denial of Shoah, Argentina and the Shoah. The organizing committee of the Latin American Congress on Learning and Teaching Holocaust-Shoah will receive papers on the subjects above. • Special communiqué: A person condemned for denial The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum -Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust supports the decision of the Austrian Justice which condemned David Irving to three years of prison on February 20 for having denied the Holocaust. The English writer was sentenced in an Austrian court for denying, in two speeches made in 1989, the existence of gas chambers and the murder of six million Jewish during the Second World War. It is important to remember that there has been a law in Austria, the Verbotsgesetz, that since 1945 has been prohibiting Neo Nazi activities and organizations; as well as the justification, approval, diminishing, or public denial of the crimes of the National Socialism. This law establishes a maximum sentence of twenty years. There is an average of twenty-five maximum sentences per year. The world is living under a worrying political context in which some country leaders deny the Holocaust without any response from the others. The decision of the Austrian justice should be celebrated in favor of the fight against anti-Semitism, intolerance and respect for the victims and survivors from the Shoah. • Communiqué of the Ambassador of the Vatican in Argentina, Adriano Bernardini: The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust would like to express its support to the document that includes “the guidelines for the pastoral care of Gypsies”. There, the rejection of this people is criticized. Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the Pontifical Council, urged to respect the “ethnic diversity, culture and antique traditions” of Gypsies. This decision shows an approach and respect for the cultural diversity worth to be celebrated. As Jews, the Gypsies were a minority persecuted, humiliated and murdered by the Nazis. The Foundation has been working for more than ten years in Argentina to keep reminding what the Holocaust meant: the massive murder of six millions of Jews. We believe it necessary to continue researching, informing, wide spreading and educating to arouse a collective moral conscience that rejects every persecution and end prejudice, hatred, discrimination and intolerance. It is extremely necessary to include subjects such as Holocaust, discrimination and intolerance in the educational system in order to generate cultural changes that permit peaceful coexistence and mutual respect. The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum -Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust is open to everyone’s participation to make this happen. • Commemoration of the 63rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The ceremony Commemoration of the 63rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Day of the Cultural Diversity was held in the Shoah Museum. Representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other national authorities and authorities of the City of Buenos Aires and of the communities were there. The speakers were Mario Feferbaum, president of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust- and a Holocaust survivor. Others who attended were



14

representatives of several institutions such as the Polish ambassador, Staniszlaw Paszczyk, the Israeli Embassy Counselor, Modi Ephraim, the human rights subdirector of the chancery, María Gabriela Quinteros, the Argentine Ambassador Alejandro Dosoretz, Pitman and the Rabbi Rubén Saferstein. Candles were lighted in the name of the victims who suffered and survived the Nazi horror and commemorative plaques were set up in the Remembrance Room, where the Victims of this tragedy are remembered. • The Ministry of Education established the commemoration of this date as the Day of the Cultural Diversity according to the Resolution Nº 126/00, regarding the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) and giving honor the Holocaust victims, to preserve the remembrance and project a society without discrimination, xenophobia and racism. • Directors of several memorials in Germany, who participate in the Second Urban Cultures Meeting of Remembrance in Buenos Aires, visited the Shoah Museum in Buenos Aires. Others who were present were the Coordinator of the Americas of the Foreign Affairs Office in Berlin, Doris Beiersdorf, the Academy Director of the Latin American Prusian Cultural Patrimony, Peter Birle, the Director of Press and Public Relations of the Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten Foundation (Sachsenhausen), Horst Seferens; Elke Gryglewsky of the House of the Wannsee Conference; and Rainer Klemke, Director of the Garden, Palaces and State Museums and the Board of the Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten Foundation. They visited the Museum joined by representatives of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Museum authorities and Mr. Wolfgang Levy. They are in Argentina to participate in the Second Urban Cultures Meeting of Remembrance in Buenos Aires, organized by the Human Rights Subsecretariat of the Government of Buenos Aires, on April 27 and 28, 2006, in the Centro Cultural Recoleta (Junín 1930.) The subjects of the meeting related remembrance and urbanities through monuments, remembrance, denunciation and homage sites, and the role of survivors and the civilian society in building memory. The Shoah Museum took part in the module called “Remembrance and Transmission” on April 28 with the presence of its Executive Director, Mrs. Graciela Jinich. • Within the Cycle “From the Library”, the book Memoria, Voces de Sabiduría y Esperanza will be presented. Within the commemoration of the 61st anniversary of the capitulation of the Nazi Regime, the Shoah Museum of Buenos Aires will present the book Memoria, Voces de Sabiduría y Esperanza, by Andrea Poretti. It contains ten testimonies where survivors from the holocaust in Argentina “report an urgent need to become a legacy to the future generations and prevent any similar situations to the Shoah from happening again”. The book publishing was boosted by the Community of Sant’Egidio, born within the II Vatican Council, which is a “Public Association of the Secular of the Church”. One of its mainstays is dialogue and ecumenism. There will be present at the presentation the writer, the president of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, Mario Feferbaum, Hugo Chantada, Press manager of CONSUDEC, and a representative of Ediciones Paulinas. The presentation is already at www.valoresreligiosos.com.ar. • The last book by Eugenia Unger, a Shoah survivor, called Después de Auschwitz, renacer de las cenizas will be presented (no date has been set yet.) • The Shoah Museum has received a flood of alumni from high schools, universities and sociocultural institutions. They have visited the permanent exhibition and also have listened to the testimonies of the survivors. Besides, training to educational institutions has been given in Buenos Aires and the Provinces. Moreover, the Museum has been visited by many visitors from every part of Argentina and abroad. The Shoah Museum provided a number of institutions with a lot of material (videos, exhibitions, interactive CDs, etc.) • Since its foundation, almost thirteen years ago, the Shoah Museum has had as a main objective to teach the youngest generations on the barbarity of Shoah so that they could communicate what “should never



15

happen and must never happen again.” For this purpose, everyday-guided tours are organized for the educational institutions (high schools and universities) and sociocultural institutions by the Museum. They include explanatory talks, a tour through the permanent and itinerant exhibitions and meetings with survivors. Teachers and pedagogues of the Museum coordinate the activity, which also consists of the projection of several allusive films and the provision of didactical material for the visiting institutions. • The museum was visited by educational entities from the City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Buenos Aires such as the schools: Escuela Técnica de Campana, Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, de Beccar; Madre Teresa, de Florencio Varela; Max Nordau, de La Plata; el Instituto Católico Evangelista Argentino, Colegio Lincoln, etc. The Museum also participated in the activities that took place in educational institutions and provided material to the different communities and schools in the Provinces. • Since January, the Museum has been visited by more than 110 foreign tourists, youngsters from several communitarian institutions and the Provinces. In April the visitors who attended the Museum were 370 people from sociocultural organizations; more than 500 students from 100 communitarian institutions, communitarian schools and schools with different religions. Testimonies were given to more than 2200 outside the Museum. The visitors currently are schools and institutions, universities and sociocultural institutions. The museum has activities prepared until November and activities in the Provinces are being planned for the following months close to the end of the year. • The Shoah Museum together with the Fundación Latinoaméricana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) offers a virtual course on Holocaust that lasts 2 ½ years. • The Shoah Museum provided Materials and assistance to the communities of Cipolletti, Córdoba, Comahue, Rosario, Basavilbaso, Tucumán, among others. The presence of survivors who gave their testimonies was also included. • The Shoah Museum provided assistance to DAIA in Tucumán and through it to the Governor for the construction of the Memorial Museum. • Assistance to the community of Resistencia, Chaco, for the construction of the Shoah Museum. In 1995, the monument of the Holocaust victims was inaugurated in Chaco. • The writer Samantha Power, winner of the “Pulitzer Prize”, visited the facilities joined by the authorities of the Armenian Community: Nélida Boulgourdjian Toufeksian and Jorge Vartparonian, Jorge Kirszenbaum, president of DAIA; Julio Toker, General Secretary DAIA and Claudio Avruj, executive director of DAIA. • The Shoah Museum was also visited by the Argentine Moviemakers Juan José Jusid and David Blaustein, the intellectual Alejandro Vaccaro and the Canadian Photographer Frank Rodick among other important figures. • The publication of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, Nuestra Memoria (Our Memory), is published every three months and has been runningly published since 1994. Currently since the 26th edition, the layout has changed to become a real reference book for those who want to study the holocaust. The ones who collaborated on the last edition were: Steven Aschheim, Yehuda Bauer, Patricio Brodsky, Pedro Cavallero, Eduardo Chernizki, Mario Feferbaum, Carlo Guinsburg, Abraham Haim, Ian Hancock, Jeffrey Herf, Jose Itzigsohn, Graciela Jinich, Moises Kijak, Arnoldo Liberman, Abraham Milgram, Andrea Poretti, Daniel Rafecas, Susana Rochwerger, Jose Sanchos Muñoz, Miguel Sztul, Gabriela Vasquez, Sima Weingarten, Abraham Zylberman, among others. 8.2 Activities in 2005



16

• Remembrance Ceremony of the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: The six million Jews who were murdered and the survivors from the Shoah were honored. The ceremony was attended by ambassadors and representatives of the different Nations: Rafael Eldad of Israel, Slawomir Ratajski of Poland, Victor Micula from Romania, Zoltan Bacs of Hungary, Sr. Vincenzo Palladini of Italy and the Ambassador Felipe Frydman of Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Others who were present were survivors from the concentration camps, ghettos, partisans, children and grandchildren of the survivors and authorities of a wide umbrella of communitarian institutions such us, Miguel Bruckner, of AMIA; Jorge Kirszenbaum, of DAIA; Denny Nusynbaum, of OSA; Jorge Burkman, of B'nai B'rith; Eugenio Weisz, of AFI, Enrique Kohn of CLAM; Salvador y Alicia Benmergui, of ACILBA; Martha A. de V. Vacarezza, of the Confraternidad Argentina Judeo Cristiana; Renato Zanchetta of ANPI (Italian Partisans), Wolfgang Levy who presides the Federación de Comunidades Conservadoras, the journalist Fanny Mandelbaum, the artist Mirta Kupferminc, the Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas. There were also members of the different Jewish and non-Jewish institutions, a big crowd and press from all over the country and abroad. Later, there was a lighting of candles to give honor to the six million victims murdered during Shoah. All of the attendants approached the Remembrance Room. • In the TV show P & E on channel 65, Cablevisión, a special was recorded by Ambassador Guelar on the Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. David Galante, a survivor was presented there because of the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. • The Second International Festival of Jewish Films took place in the Mantra cinema in Punta del Este (Uruguay): The film MESA REDONDA: El horror aquí y allá (Round Table: Horror Here and There) was presented. The participants in the movie were: Mauricio Rosencof; Miriam Lewin; David Blaustein (Museum of Films) y Graciela Jinich (Buenos Aires Shoah Museum). It was coordinated by Marcelo Viñar. • In March, courses on History of Shoah began. It is about the last nine months of the Second World War and Shoah through films. It is held in the Shoah Museum by Abraham Zylberman. • The Shoah Museum joined the Israeli Embassy for the anniversary of the tragic bombing to its building. • The Embassy of Austria and the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum presented the photographic exhibition by JÁNOS KALMÁR (compilation by Alfred Stalzer) called: La Viena Judía (The Jewish Vienna.) • Within the cycle From the Library the book Auge y Ocaso de los Judíos de Ostrog was presented. The author is Marek Rowensztein, a Shoah survivor. The speakers of the presentation were Claudio Martyniuk and the writer. • The TV series Broken Silence by Steven Spielberg was broadcasted in Mar del Plata: The whole Broken Silence TV Series by Shoah Foundation was broadcasted in the Law School of Mar del Plata on five running Thursdays. This series of presentation started with the documentary-testimonial film Some Who Lived by Luis Puenzo. Graciela Nabel de Jinich, executive director of the Shoah Museum from Buenos Aires and Regional Coordinator of Shoah Foundation was in charge of the presentation. • The ceremony commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – Day of the Cultural Diversity took place in the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum. • In the Victoria Ocampo Room (Pabellón Blanco, Planta Alta) the round table 60 Years After the Capitulation of the Nazi Germany presented the book Holocausto: Víctimas. Perpetradores. Testigos (Holocaust: Victims. Perpetrators. Witnesses.) compiled by David Bankier. Those who took part of the Table were Fortunato Mallimacci (Sociologist, ex dean of the Social Science Faculty, UBA, Researcher of the CONICET and Professor in the Social Science Faculty, UBA), Abraham Zylberman (Professor of Jewish



17

History, ORT and teacher in the Shoah Museum from Buenos Aires) and Patricio Brodsky (Professor and researcher of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum and UBA Shoah Museum.) • The documentary-testimonial film 818 Tong Shan Road was projected in the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum: Direction and script by Marlene Lievendag. The film depicts the story of a Jewish boy who escapes with his family from Hamburg in 1941 to Shanghai. He lives a most of his childhood there in a ghetto, under the Japanese control. He, as an adult, visits the places were he was in his childhood. He comes back to his memories and sites that marked his childhood, revaluating that experience. • The Shoah Museum, like every year, celebrated Pesach with the survivors, The Joint, Fundación Tzedaká, the synagogue in Libertad and the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and the Museum. • The Shoah Museum reminded of the 60th anniversary of the capitulation of the Nazi regime. Survivors, children, grandchildren and an open crowd approached the facilities. They visited the Museum and lighted candles in the Remembrance Room giving honor to the victims. They saw the exhibitions that are currently exhibited: La Viena Judía, specially brought by the Embassy of Austria, Testigos , set up by Eugenia Bekeris; Imágenes del Holocausto (Shoá.) The choir of Martín Buber School conducted by Ricardo Sidelnik also sang at the Museum. • The book Y Eligirás la Vida (Editorial Aguilar) was presented at the Shoah Museum. It is about the histories of survivors written by Adriana Schettini. She was at the presentation together with the distinguished journalist and writer Mario Diament. • A farewell party, attended by a crowd, was given for the Ambassador of Poland, Slawomir Ratajski. A lot of letters of support were received, especially one by the First Lady and Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The president of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, Mario Feferbaum, stressed in his speech the important task that has performed the Ambassador Ratajski in our country and gave him a picture by the artist Mirta Kupferminc as a present on behalf of the Museum. The Ambassador Slawomir Ratajski appreciated not only the support of his management but also the relationship. He donated worthy materials to the library of the institution. Among them, he donated the film Korczak by the Moviemaker Andrzej Wajda. The movie was projected later. • In July, the president of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and Director of the Social Studies Center of DAIA, Mario Feferbaum, together with the treasurer of DAIA, Jacobo Luterstein, attended the annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Claims Conference. They took part in the meetings where different subjects were analyzed, such as: allocation distribution, social assistance, museums; education and research on the Holocaust. There was also a meeting with the New York Mayor, Michael Blumberg, the Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary, Political Affairs of the U.S. Mario Feferbaum and Jacobo Luterstein also met with directors and authorities of the Claims Conference, and had interviews with important figures that work on this theme all over the world. • The Executive Director of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust participated in several meetings with municipal and provincial authorities in Rosario. The main objective of the meetings was to see how to implement the teaching of the Holocaust in high schools, universities and through libraries, cultural institutions, etc. Moreover, there were talks on the likelihood of taking exhibitions and the survivors to give their testimony to the society of Santa Fe, especially to the youngsters. • Musical Tour around the Synagogues –Conciertos por la Paz- was presented by the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, Comunidad Amijai, CUJA, Fundación Judaica and organized by Fundación



18

Kinor. It consisted of six concerts where renowned international artists participated. The first concert started in June and the cycle ended in November. • The Shoah Museum, FESERA and José Menasce held the conference called The Sefaradi Communities and the Holocaust. The speaker was Abraham Haim, professor of the University of Jerusalem and University of Salamanca. • Planned seminar given by the División Unidad de Investigaciones de Conductas Discriminatorias (Division for the Investigation of Discriminatory Behaviors) de la Argentine Federal Police and the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust. The seminar for 790 officers of the Argentine Police, who will graduate in the following weeks. The objective was to promote, from the remembrance of the Holocaust, a change in the conscience of citizens as regards the coexistence, democracy and mutual respect. • The Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust had an important and running presence in the meetings scheduled by the ITF since the moment that Argentina was invited to it, in Stockholm, in January 2000. Argentina is the only Latin American Delegation of the ITF (Working group for the International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research) and participates as a full member. • The participation of the FMH allows that Buenos Aires Shoah Museum be still part of the exchange of education working groups and memorial education working groups. It is extremely important to continue this exchange of professionals from different countries. • In the auditorium of the Instituto del Servicio Exterior de la Nación (ISEN), Mario Sznajder* gave a conference on The Holocaust and the international Politics for the students of ISEN and employees of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the series of meetings of the Working Group of ITF. This event was organized by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Ambassador Enrique Pareja; The speakers were León Blum, who is a professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Professor Mario Sznajder, who is an associate researcher for the Truman Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He wrote four books. One of them is Naissance de l'ideologie fasciste (Paris: Fayard, 1989) written together with Zeev Sternhell. It was translated into English, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Hebrew. There are more than 90 published articles in scientific magazines on his research themes. • The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust celebrated its annual dinner on the 12th Anniversary of the Institution, on the 60th anniversary of the Capitulation of the Nazi Regime. Its president, Mr. Feferbaum remarked the extense and important task that the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum does. There was also a recorder message specially left by Marcos Aguinis. The singer Zully Goldfarb sang in Yiddish. The dinner was held in the Sheraton Hotel in Buenos Aires. Daniel Maman conducted the auction of priceless works of art by the artists: Mirta Kupferminc, Gotleyb, Barragán, and Teresa Nachman de Otero de Montoya, and a silver statuette by Pujía. Awards were given for the commitment to the transmission of Holocaust and the dedication as regards human rights of Professor Leonardo Senkman, Gregorio Klimovsky, Todo es Historia Magazine and its director Félix Luna and Rabbi Daniel Goldman. • Other people who attended the dinner were: the Israeli Ambassador, Rafael Eldad; the US Consul General, Hugo Llorens and Mrs.;. Thomas Schuller Gotzburg, Minister Counselor, Austrian Embassy; Major General Néstor Pérez Vovart, Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff of the Army; of the Ministry of Education, Technology and Science, Professors Mirta Bocchio and Alicia Santillán; Msgr. Nicola Girasoli of the Apostolic Nunciature; the president of AMIA: Mr. Luis Grynwald; the president of OSA (Organización Sionista Argentina) Manuel Junowicz; Jorge Kirszenbaum, President of DAIA; representatives of Sherit



19

Hapleita; Luis Fuensalida Argentina's Interpol chief; Principal Daniel Pérez of the Investigation Division of Discriminatory Behaviors of the Argentine Federal Police; Jorge Vartparonian President of the Armenian Community Foundation; the Rabbi Sergio Bergman and Daniel Goldman; Dr. Fernando Finvarb; the Federal Judges Daniel Rafecas and Juan Carlos Maqueda; The Ambassador of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Horacio Wamba; Nicolás Gutman (Assistant of Luis Duhalde Human Rights) Graciela Feinstein Human Rights Secretariat; the journalists Pepe Eliaschev and Adriana Schettini; members of the boards of NGOs and Communitarian Institutions, directors of universities, schools and NGOs, teachers and academics, businessmen, artists, representatives of Banks, survivors and their descendants. • In the cycle The History of Shoah through films, given by Professor Abraham Zylberman, the Poland film KORCZAK directed by Andrzej Wajda was projected with subtitles in Spanish. After it, there was a debate with the audience. • The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum signed a collective agreement with the Institution Sherit Hapleitá. • The 31st anniversary of the murder of the Jewish Communities of Rodas, Salónica and Cos by the Nazis was commemorated. The Centro Comunitario Chalom and the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust organized a Remembrance and Honoring Ceremony to the martyrs of those communities that were exterminated in concentration camps. It was supported by Federación Sefaradí de la República Argentina (FeSeRa) and the Federación Sefaradí Latinoamericana (FeSeLA.) • The Museum has been visited by thousands of visitors from all over Argentina and abroad. It has provided a number of institutions with a lot of material (videos, exhibitions, interactive CDs, etc.) • Since its foundation, the Shoah Museum has had as a main objective the teaching of the younger generations on the barbarity of Shoah so that the they could communicate what “should never happen and must never happen again.” For this purpose, everyday-guided tours are organized for the educational institutions (high schools and universities) and sociocultural institutions by the Museum. They include explanatory talks, a tour through the permanent and itinerant exhibitions and meetings with survivors. Teachers and pedagogues of the Museum coordinate the activity, which also consists of the projection of several allusive films and the provision of didactical material for the visiting institution. Training is given in educational institutions of the City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Buenos Aires. • Moreover, the Shoah Museum participates in activities held in educational institutions and provides materials to the communities of several Provinces, such as the Sephardim Community in Córdoba, during the “Shoah Week”. It has also provided the interactive CD-ROM Fragments, exhibitions and videos to Hillel in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Besides delegations of youngsters from the New York University and the Jewish Communities of Puerto Rico, Brazil, Israel, France and Canada were welcomed. Besides, the Shoah Museum welcomes tourist guides to establish the Museum as a site of interest to the tourists in Buenos Aires. • The Shoah Museum was visited by a group of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, leadered by the Executive Deputy President Leonid Bard. 15 people of different ages visited the exhibitions and library and were interested in the functioning of the institution. Mr. Bard promised to keep in touch and to send material on the Shoah period in Russia. This visit could be made thanks to Miguel Steuermann of Radio Jai. • The Pianist Ivan Klansky, member of the Guarneri Trio from Prague visited the Museum. He went through the exhibition, greeted the teachers and students of the Comercial Nº19 of the City of Buenos Aires and talked with Moises Borowicz, a survivor from the Holocaust. • Professor Israel Peleg, a specialist in the subject of Holocaust and its transmission, visited the Museum in September. Professor Israel Peleg works in Moreshet Center in Israel.



20

• There was a Seminar on the Horrors of the Holocaust, in the National University of La Matanza, in the Auditorio Grande of the Casa de Altos Estudios. The event commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Capitulation of the Nazi Regime. The speakers were: the Dean of Political Science and Law School of UNLAM, Alejandro Finocchiaro, Prof. Graciela Nabel de Jinich, executive director of the Shoah Museum, Mr. David Galante Holocaust survivor, Israeli Ambassador in Argentina, Rafael Eldad, Professor of law at the University, Marcos Grabbivker, and the president of the Shoah Museum, Mario Feferbaum. • “The meeting focus is on the best understanding of the terrible genocide beyond history books, to understand the facts in order to educate students to have a firm democratic conviction, based on respect for human rights, life and liberty,” the organizers explained. • The Shoah Museum gave honor, together with Sherit Hapleitá, to Simón Wiesenthal (Z’L) because of his death. • During the Night of Museums, organized by the General Direction of Museums, the Shoah Museum kept opened to be visited from 7pm to 2pm, offering a wide range of activities. Among them, there was a tour through the permanent exhibition and projections of the interactive CDs. Through objects, images and words, the Jewish lifestyle in Argentina and Europe, before and after the Second World War was told; there was also an exhibition on Images of the Shoa and a collection of photographs taken by Heinz Jöst, of 1941, in the Warsaw ghetto, among other works. • There was also a tour through the itinerary exhibitions in the annexed rooms, educational exhibitions that recently arrived from Yad Vashem and the Washington Shoah Museum and the oral testimony of Holocaust survivors. The following films were projected: The Last Days by James Moll and Steven Spielberg and Some Who Lived by Luis Puenzo. • The Shoah Museum was invited to participate in the Night of Museums. On October 1, 1202 people could approach the theme of Shoah by visiting (through guided tours) the Shoah Images, A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto, The Legend of the Lodz Ghetto and The Holocaust, Denigration and Extermination exhibitions. They also listened to the survivors Jorge Klainman, Moises Borowicz, David Galante and Enrique Dychter telling their testimony; they saw the presentation of the CD Fragments and the movies Some Who Lived, The Last Days and Testimonies. • An article was published in the Clarín Newspaper on October 2, 2005. It said that “…according to the Secretary of Culture of Buenos Aires, Gustavo López, the idea is to discover new worlds… If at least one person that never goes to museums, starts visiting them because of the Night of Museums, we will have achieved our goal… Caminito is one of the seven joints that the City of Buenos Aires designated to be the start the circuits… There are many options, since the main objective is to attract new visitors. We want youngsters, kids, people who have never entered a museum to approach them, and I believe that we are being successful…” Explains Silvia Fajre of the Undersecretariat of Cultural Heritage. The proposal was divided into five circuits in: La Boca, el Centro, San Telmo, Recoleta, Caballito and Belgrano. Many people learnt about Arts and Fashion and History. Federico (13) and Sofía (16) thought about war at the Shoah Museum… I did not know what had happened… they keep saying when they see the pictures of Nazi times.” • The Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust gave honor to the 6 million Jews murdered in the Second World War. There was a ceremony, following the legacy of the Unión Cultural Central Israelita in Argentina, Polisher Farband, in Tablada Cementry in remembrance of the supporting associations: Warsaw, Prague, Belchatow, Lodz, Lublin, Vishkov, Zamosts, Yelejov – Garvolin, Dubne Vengrog, Levertov, Zaklokov – Birjava, Biala Podaska, Rovne Sarnaki Losice, Siedlitz.



21

• In Sherit Hapleitá, there was a Rosh Hashanah Lehaim with many of the survivors, their children and grandchildren together with members of several communitarian institutions. • The Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust together with the Unidad de Investigaciones de Conductas Discriminatorias of the Argentine Federal Police implemented a seminar whose objective was to promote awareness as regards coexistence, democracy and respect. It was held in the Cadets’ Academy of the Argentine Federal Police in the City of Buenos Aires. The attendants were 253 students (cadets) about to graduate as officers of the Argentine Federal Police. Dean Daniel Pérez and his team started the seminar talking about discrimination and discrimination in our country. Professor Graciela Jenich referred to the subject of Holocaust and explained the projects that are being developed in the world and in Argentina. The film Some Who Lived directed by Luis Puenza, which belongs to the Shoah Foundation of Steven Spielberg was projected. • Both the Shoah Museum and the Universidad de Belgrano organized the conference Psychology of racism and the Holocaust, sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The speaker was José A. Itzigsohn, at the Auditorio Urquiza of the Universidad de Belgrano. Some important attendants were Mario Feferbaum, President of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust Susana Rochwerger, Deputy President of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and Sima Milmaniene, General Secretary of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust. Andrés Fontana, Dean of the Law School and Susana Seidmann, Dean of the Humanitarian Faculty. José A. Itzigsohn, the speaker, has been director of the Faculty of Psychology of the UBA and one of its founders, becoming an Honorary Professor recently. Currently, he lives in Jerusalem and presides the Association of Spanish Speakers workers of mental Health in Israel. He wrote, among other books, La Marca de Abel, Tras las Huellas de Askhenaz and Una Experiencia Contemporánea. • The executive director of the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, within the framework of a joint activity with DAIA -Córdoba, participated in meetings with authorities of the Secretariat and Undersecretariat of Education of the Province, municipal and Provincial authorities, in Cordoba. The main purpose was to study the likelihood of implementing the teaching about the Holocaust in high schools, universities and through libraries, cultural institutions, etc. • One of the topics for discussion was the possibility of taking the exhibitions of the Museum and the survivors to give their priceless testimonies, especially to the youngsters, to Santa Fe. The director of the Liceo, Colonel Marcelo Andrés Statragni, concluded the event by giving materials to all the presents. The youngsters were asking for more resources to learn about the Holocaust. Colonel Satragni looked really satisfied with the results of the activity. “This uniform is sadly related to anti-Semitism. This is our upsetting history. That is why I believe that from getting to know each other we are going forward. Maybe the Argentine society is starting to become integrated,” he explained. He also admitted the importance of including the theme of Holocaust in the scholar syllabi. • The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, the YMCA and the Armenian National Committee of South America organized the open ceremony called Say No to Genocides, Yes to Life. The pain of Genocide. Remembrance: The hope for life. It was held in the A-B room in the Centro Cultural San Martín. Norberto Rodríguez, General Secretary of AJC/YMCA started the ceremony. Other speakers were Pedro Mouratian, Director of the Armenian National Committee of South America, Maria Victoria Alcaraz, Director of the Centro Cultural San Martín, on behalf of the Cultural Secretariat of the Government of Buenos Aires. It was sponsored by the Cultural Secretariat of the Government of Buenos Aires, the Embassy of Austria and the Embassy of Vienna. There was a special presentation of a testimonial video with the testimony of one survivor (Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust), The Denied Genocide (the Armenian National Committee of South America), The Peoples from the Americas: an Important Case of Genocide (ACJ/YMCA)



22

There was a special performance by Vienna Klezmer Band (Ela Malkin vocal-piano); Alfred Pfleger (violin); Igor Pilyavskiy (Accordion, saxophone, panflute, sopilka); Julius Darvas (bass) y Martín Breinschmid (drums). • Speech of the President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust during the Say No to Genocides, Yes to Life. Ceremony: Say No to Genocides, Yes to Life. Ceremony was held in the Centro Cultural San Martín last Wednesday. There, the President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and Director of the Social Studies Center of DAIA, Mario Feferbaum, expressed: “On January 25, the president of the board of the World Jewish Congress, at an open ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of the Death Camp called Auschwitz in the Deutchen Theater of Berlin, stressed that the remembrance of the Holocaust is closed and isolated. It is urgent to educate the educators and to be open. Nothing is told about the behavior of certain leaders that during the Second World War – and after- have disseminated Nazi-Fascism; to the extreme of labeling the Jews that lived in our country with the Star of David in their IDs, and prohibiting their entrance to the country, before and after the War. Here, Yiddish was forbidden, Jewish schools were made to close, as well as communitarian newspapers and the kosher slaughtering was canceled in the main municipal slaughterhouses. All of these has been studied and documented by historians, but silenced to the public. The legal regime of Nazism is not taught, nor is the close intellectual and scientific collaboration of talented professionals of different specializations with Nazism. That includes the handling of the media, which submitted entire peoples and that still works in such a way that has several killings and genocides as a consequence. Furthermore, currently an Iranian fanatic politician claims – under impunity and indifference- for the genocide of the inhabitants of Israel. We appreciate the constancy, strength and example of the survivors from the Holocaust that energetically give testimony of the painful and terrible situations they underwent.” • In the Faculty of Arts of UBA, there was a presentation of the book Oswald Menghin: ciencia y nazismo - El antisemitismo como imperativo moral, by Marcelino Fontan in a joint ceremony between the Faculty of Arts of UBA and the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust. The attendants were invited by the Dean Felix Schuster and the President of the Shoah Museum, Mario Feferbaum. • The Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, Sheirit Hapleitá and DAIA organized together a ceremony in the Shoah Museum commemorating the Kristallnacht. • Seminar on the Jewish Holocaust for penitentiary cadets (Capital-Rosario): the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust and the penitentiary of Santa Fe organized a seminar about the Jewish Holocaust for 200 cadets. The purpose was to reeducate them on Human Rights and constitutional laws, especially as regard the relationship among prisoners. “We wanted to think over, from a situation like the Holocaust, the actions of a genocide State that violated all the human rights and current actions, in an environment where these violations are likely to happen,” expressed Fernando Rosúa, Director of the Penitentiary of Santa Fe. • The Seminar was concluded with the projection of the movie called Some Who Lived. María Eugenia Bielsa, the Deputy Governor, was there. She said that “As said by the cadets themselves, this Seminar has as an important purpose to install the need to stop discriminating and feeling discriminated against, among other things that dignify the future penitentiary officers. Bielsa remarked that “the cadets have become aware of the subject and of their own actions in the prisons. Basically, there were three topics: the social discourse, their role in its creation and the segregation to the Police and to the others. And the idea of accepting diversity. These are very important thoughts in an environment where they are not very frequent. It was priceless because it was an individual and collective work of thinking about the situations in practice.



23

• The Holocaust Museum Houston trusted the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum to chose four Social Science teachers of high schools to give scholarships on Holocaust to go to the Holocaust Museum Houston. It is a study week trip in January 2006. More than 150 responses were received from all over the country. • The Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust collaborated in informing of the scholarships that Yad Vashem gives for January 2006. This Seminar for teachers is called Remembrance of the Shoah and problems of its transmission. It will be given in Spanish in Yad Vashem, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Mount Scopus Campus – and other places in Israel related to the theme of the Holocaust. The academic design of the general contents is being done by the International School of Holocaust Studies (Yad Vashem) and the International Center for the teaching of Jewish Cultures at Universities (Hebrew University of Jerusalem.) The profile of the applicants should be educators or professionals that work for academic-educational institutions. • The Shoah Museum welcomed, among other people, Mr. Jacob Kovadloff, Consultant on Latin American Affairs of the American Jewish Committee and Mr. Gerald Nagler, Chair of the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. • The Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas, known for the enforcement of the antidiscriminatory law, and the Director of the Shoah Museum visited the Province of San Luis. During their stay, the National University of San Luis organized courses, seminars, expositions and debates on films, within the framework of the Week of Human Rights. The University, through the open subject on discrimination and Human Rights, invited Professor Graciela Jinich and Judge Daniel Rafecas to the final lecture. The Seminar Human Rights, Intolerance and Holocaust from a legal perspective given by the Judge had as main topic: the problem of education and its importance to stop prejudice, which leads to discrimination, xenophobia and racism. • The 60th anniversary of the Capitulation of the Nazi Regime was reminded in the Provinces. Many ceremonies were held to commemorate Iom HaShoah. The Holocaust survivors Jorge Klainman (in Corrientes), David Galante (Tucumán), Moisés Borowicz (Concordia and Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos) and Katy and Tommy Kertesz (Rosario) participated in the events, gave testimony before students and were interviewed by the press. Besides, Professor Abraham Zylberman participated in the Iom HaShoah ceremony in the Jewish Community in Concepción del Uruguay, on May 5. There he held a debate, illustrated with fragments of films on the subject The Allies and the Shoah: Complicity or Indifference? He also met with more than 200 students and teachers of middle state schools and was at the Iom HaShoah ceremony, after which he lectured on the Holocaust, in Basavilbaso, Entre Ríos, at the Lucienville Public Library. • The TV series Broken Silence was projected at the Museum of Modern Arts in Mendoza, arranged by Martha Artaza and Susana Tampieri. The film was lent by the Shoah Foundation through the Buenos Aires Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust. • In the 4th Technical seminar called Conservation, Exhibition and Educational extension in Museums in Tucumán, sponsored by the Faculty of Natural Science, the Miguel Lillo Institute and Red Jaguar, the architects Analía Gómez and Cecilia Corredera and Valeria Ugarte presented their paper on Environmental Behavior in the Reserve of the Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust: the state of heritage. All of these presences in the Provinces are thanks to the Shoah Museum that collaborates with all of the institutions to organize activities connected with Shoah. • The 60th Anniversary of the Capitulation of the Nazi Regime has aroused some meaningful interest on the media in the theme of Shoah; mainly on important dates such as January 27, April 19, May 8 and 9, and Iom HaShoah. The museum received dozens of enquiries and requests to interview the survivors by the



24

national, provincial, communitarian and international media. Therefore, there could be seen on the media the coverage on the ceremonies organized by the Museum. The Holocaust survivors were also interviewed during their trip to the Provinces. The Shoah Museum - Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust has also collaborated with the making of the film El Oro Nazi (The Nazi Gold); the documentary about Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara, a former Japanese Consul, who saved the lives of more than 10,000 Jews by giving them the visa to get away from Lithuania and become free; and the movie called Holocausto Seis (Holocaust Six), produced by Channel 9, Infinito. The Museum assists students, producers and journalists, researchers and academics on this subject. 9. Conclusions Argentina has been a full member of ITF since 2002 and has committed to respect the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust (January 2000) and to implement programs and policies to support education, remembrance and research on the Holocaust. As for this, the Argentine Government has recently promoted the subject. Although the ITF Argentine delegation has been committed to its participation since 2002, on February 10 the Resolution SER /52 SE /6 DH was announced, which involves three Ministries (of Education, of Justice and of Foreign Affairs.) Its main objective is to assure the permanent treatment of the theme of Holocaust and an active and concrete participation of the Argentine delegation in the plenary ITF meetings. Moreover, the Resolution establishes the active participation of the state through a Permanent Consultative Council integrated by governmental officers and NGOs interested in education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust. The promotion of articulating the collaboration of the State with the Civil Society Organizations in 2006 is very important. Argentina is not like any other country as regards anti-Semitism. Argentina is not only the place where the biggest Jewish Community in Latin America lives but also the only Latin American country that underwent 2 tragic bombings such as the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and AMIA in 1994. As for the latter, Argentina has recognize its international responsibility regarding violations of the human rights, before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR.) Besides, our country was open to immigration in the 19th Century. It welcomed Jewish people, but, unfortunately, it also welcomed Nazis. This duality of Argentina requires a constant action from the Government regarding denunciations and reports against anti-Semitism at any level, governmental institutions, schools and families. The promotion and protection of Human Rights are important for the State policies in our country, and it has been established as top priorities for the current Government. Argentina has presented and sponsored resolutions on the right to Truth and on the Holocaust remembrance to several international forum such as the UN and the former Commission of Human Rights. This shows the strong commitment of Argentina not only to ITF, but also to the idea that the Holocaust remembrance is tightly connected with the need to guarantee memory, truth and justice. Finally, taking into account the promotion of the subject by the current Argentine Government, through the Resolution 202, it could be understood that the commitment to the theme of Holocaust is not only as a consequence of being members of the ITF, but mainly because it helps to develop a more educated society and respectful of the intrinsic values of each person.

«escudo» «membre1» «membre2»€¦ · «escudo» «membre1» «membre2» it is also important...

Documents