Excerpts from speech by Prime Minister
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Georges Loinger's presence here this evening naturally calls on us to remember. His exceptional deeds inspire humility, respect and admiration. Sir, you saved hundreds of children by getting them into Switzerland. Your courage is a source of inspiration.
As first-hand memories of the genocide fade, bit by bit, with the loss of the witnesses of that era, our responsibility toward future generations grows. Now more than ever, we must resist those who try to banalize the Holocaust. Now more than ever, we must preserve the physical sites of remembrance.
There are concerns about the financing of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. I want to tell you that France will not let indifference erase the place that is the symbol of the worst horror engendered by humanity. France is ready to provide its full share of the funding needed for its preservation. This is a challenge for the entire European continent.
Auschwitz is an essential place of remembrance for Europe. It symbolizes our common resolve to never again repeat the intolerable: the reign of absolute barbarism in Europe. That is why I ask you to write President Barroso to ask him to swiftly propose before the European Parliament and Council that a significant share of the EU budget be allocated to the Auschwitz Foundation. But France itself will heed the call. I want her to assume her responsibility. I have asked Simone Veil to present me with proposals on the best way to respond to the Polish request, a mission she kindly accepted.
In France, I want the state-approved status granted in February 2009 to the Fondation du Camp des Milles - Mémoire et Education to help concretize the project of restoring the sole French internment and deportation camp that remains intact and restorable. I also hail the initiative of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, which, in partnership with the Mémorial de la Shoah, will soon be creating a Center of History and Memory in Drancy, the antechamber of death for the vast majority of those deported from France.
The duty to remember is also carried out through the transmission of eyewitness accounts and fighting Holocaust denial. Through its diplomatic network, France is engaged in this battle. Yesterday in Casablanca and Tunis, tomorrow in Cairo, on February 7 in Baghdad, our cultural institutes abroad are hosting evenings focused on the works of Primo Levi, with the participation of Arab intellectuals and that tireless advocate for remembrance, Serge Klarsfeld. I would also like to mention the remarkable work of the NGO Aladin, which oversaw the translation of major works such as those of Primo Levi and Anne Frank into Arabic and Farsi.
Educate, sensitize and pass on: That is the essence of the proposal President Sarkozy formulated here two years ago on Holocaust education in primary schools. These teachings, which take the approach of the Waysbord report, have become widespread and new resources have been developed. A database of 11,400 Jewish children who were deported during the war was developed by the Mémorial de la Shoah and made accessible to teachers. These new resources have made it possible to revive and renew teaching of the Holocaust at school and to stress its universal dimension.
France fully owns its history, both the shadowy areas we are all familiar with and the points of light, such as the help given to Jews by all our country's Righteous, whether practicing or atheist.
France has acknowledged its responsibility in the deportation of Jews and has owned it, notably through the 2000 creation of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shah, as reparation for damages, and through the complete restitution of looted assets that had remained without beneficiaries. In less than 10 years, the foundation has fully played its role. 150 million euros were allocated to support the Mémorial de la Shoah and to assist more than 1,700 projects relating to solidarity toward survivors, history, remembrance, Holocaust education and Jewish culture. For 10 years, the committee to compensate victims of looting (CIVS) returned more than 450 million euros to tens of thousands of applicants. I hail the work of this remarkable institution. Finally, last August I decided to reassess the allowances paid to orphans whose parents were deported, shot or slaughtered because of their Jewishness, established in 2000. This will be done each year until 2012.