Dear Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Once
again the time of lights and candles has come and brightly illuminated windows
can be seen in Thessaloniki these days. Ahead of us lie the Christmas
celebrations and the turn of the year. Ever since, the advent season and Christmas
mark a special occasion during the year. It is a time of reflection, a time
which you enjoy with family and loved ones. It gives us the chance to focus on
what is really important, as if those days were made to pause for a movement,
slow down and think back.
I
am very pleased that we use the following days to pause and to remind us that a
terrible crime against humanity had been committed more than 70 years ago. During
the next three days you will face the horrible past of the Holocaust and talk about
how to deal with this dreadful topic in school. I am convinced that it is of
vital importance for all of us. Education and enlightenment enables us to fully
understand what happened and to contribute our part that it will never happen
again.
Pupils
have to receive appropriate and clear information about the topic early in
order to stop the development of prejudice. I think to study restrictions which
existed in the past is also a great way to learn to appreciate the freedom we
have today.
We
are living in a time where hardly anyone is still alive who experienced the
events of the Second World War and Holocaust first hand. So there is a danger
of losing the experiences of a horrific time. Even though the reports of those
first hand experiences are irreplaceable, I believe that the lessons in school
can play a vital role in helping to find a very individual approach to the
time. The world must never forget, deny or downplay the Holocaust and we
realize of course the special obligation of Germany.
It
means a lot to me that we face this difficult part of our past together because
the time of the occupation of Greece from 1941-1944 by the German Armed Forces
is the darkest chapter in German-Greek history. Unfortunately, we must also
concede that in Germany still too little is known, what crimes have been
committed here in Greece.
I
am all the more pleased that the German-Greek Future Fund, as announced by
German President Joachim Gauck during his visit to Greece in March of this
year, has been installed. This fund will make an important contribution to
stimulate the bilateral relations between our two countries with the focus on
common rememberance of Greek/German history. With the help of the German-Greek
Future Fund we were so far able to start some important projects beside today’s
event.
It
is our duty to keep the Holocaust present in school to create thus a culture of
rememberance. Even though the memory is painful, we have to face it, we shall
never forget and will keep memory alive. The teachers have the responsibility
to nurture tolerance and righteousness within the youth. It is their task to
keep the horrors of the Holocaust alive with the young generation in order to
not just write facts down in history books as one historic event amongst many
others.
For
this reason I want to express my special appreciation and gratitude to those
teachers who feed this knowledge. This event today will take us further on our
journey, and I wish you to engage in stimulating discussions that will remain
in your memories and in you work in the future.
Thank
you.
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