Holocaust Day - Holocaust denial

The United States is drafting a UN resolution to denounce holocaust denial. Germany is pushing for the same in Europe.

Goudstikker's Notebook

January 27, 1945 was the day when Auschwitz was liberated. For years this day has been commemorated on a more national basis, but in 2005 the United Nations inaugurated the day as the global Holocaust Memorial Day dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

This year the remembrance is marked by the resurging holocaust denial. In December Teheran hosted a conference, which the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended in person. He has formerly declared that Holocaust was a myth. Sixty-seven writers from 30 countries attended the conference that has been closely followed by the Western world. An open letter in The New York Review of Books carries the signatures of more than one hundred Iranians seeking to distance themselves from the opinions expressed at the Iranian conference and "emphasizing that this is not the first time that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has resorted to the denial and distortion of historical facts." In the letter the Iranians "strongly condemn the Holocaust Conference sponsored by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tehehran on December 11-12, 2006, and its attempt to falsify history". - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19831

New UN resolution
Currently the US is drafting a new UN resolution trying to denounce Holocaust denial. It calls for all member states to reject any denial of the Holocaust under the caveat that "ignoring the historical fact of these terrible events increases the risk that they will be repeated." The draft of the resolution has been circulated ahead of Holocaust Memorial day on January 27th. Holocaust denial is illegal in several European countries including Germany, Austria and France. At the same time Germany has pushed for a parallel European resolution. This initiative has however has been opposed by some member states, not because there is any collective wish to take part in any form of denial, but because this initiative collides with the current effort to secure one of the most cherished and fundamental European values, freedom of speech.

Jewish wealth still 'missing'
At the same time governments and large institutions are still dragging there feet concerning the reparation and return of stole Jewish art and wealth, thus infringing upon another important European value: respect for the integrity of private property. Only one fifth of the property that was seized from Jews under the Nazi regime has been returned, according to results that will be published by the economist Sidney Zabludoff, a former U.S Treasury official. The study is to appear in the April issue of the Jewish Political Studies Review, a journal published by the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, an Israeli think tank. The general results were already released the day after French President Jacques Chirac honoured 2,725 French people who risked their lives to rescue Jewish people from the Nazis. Estimates vary, but according to Zabludoff's report the captured wealth amounts to a current value of between € 92 and € 140 billion. However an Israeli report doubles this estimate.

Thorny issue of art
Especially government-funded museums are adding considerably to this insult by not willingly releasing art collections that were stolen during and after the war. Recently the Goudstikker case has been making some noise in the media. On May 14, 1940, several days after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Goudstikker left for Britain with his wife and son, leaving behind a collection of around 1,100 artworks catalogued in a notebook that he carried with him. On board the ship to Britain, the art dealer fell through a hatch and died. His wife and son continued their travels to the United States. After the war the Netherlands retrieved some 300 works from the Goudstikker collection that became property of the Dutch state. Later, against the wishes of Goudstikker's widow, part of the collection was sold and another part was distributed to several Dutch Museums. After years of legal-wrangling, the Dutch government finally agreed in February last year to give back 202 works, including pieces from Italian and Dutch sixteenth- and seventeenth-century masters, to Goudstikker's heirs. This month a catalogue will be published containing specifications of 500 works that were 'stolen' from Goudstikker. Marei von Saher, Goudstikker's American daughter-in-law, wants museums to check if they have bought or received any of the works looted from the Goudstikker collection so that she can reclaim them. It remains to be seen whether Museums will help to identify this lost heirloom.

More: In a few days a new book by Monika Tatzkow and Gunner Schnabelis is published on "Nazi looted Art. Handbuch Kunstrestitution weltweit" (Proprietas Verlag, Berlin. 500 S., 39,80 Euro).