SPEECHES

January 24, 2005
NEW YORK CITY, United States
2005/4

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY

THE HONOURABLE PIERRE PETTIGREW,

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

AT THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE UN ON THE LIBERATION OF THE

 CONCENTRATION CAMPS

It is a moment of great sorrow that brings us here today to speak to the representatives of the world in this great General Assembly. For this is a solemn occasion that is etched in sadness for my government and for all of my fellow citizens in Canada.

For, truth be told, we should not be here. In a perfect world, we would not be marking the murder of six million people.

But this is not a perfect world. Sixty years ago, our parents discovered that in anguish.

In a few days, we will stand at Auschwitz and mark the liberation of the survivors of the Nazi horror. Those who survived the Holocaust have aged and they are fewer now, as time has taken its toll. But we do not forget them, nor those who did not survive. And we never will.

We are here to give resonance and strength to the notion that we must always remember this dark chapter in our history. For it is a chapter in our collective history as human beings that must never be repeated.

In Canada, we take pride in our fight against fascism and in our assistance in liberating those who suffered. And we are proud of the contribution the Jewish community, including survivors of the Holocaust, has made to make Canada stronger, more prosperous and more diverse, and Canadians more respectful of one another.

But if the liberation of Auschwitz marked the beginning of the end of the Holocaust, it did not mark the end of the evil that spawned it. For today, even in societies like Canada, where respect for others is a value, world society is facing new threats of hatred that we must see as challenges to our values. More than ever, we must re-affirm our common values of inclusion and we must firmly reject all forms of hatred.

It remains one of the greatest crimes in the history of humanity: the cold-blooded and systematic murder of millions of people, an overwhelming majority of them Jews. A famous American writer once said: “History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy and it always feels uncomfortable.” My friends, we must never find comfort, we must never forget.

And yet, how did it happen? It happened, in my mind, because the greatest evil is indifference. It is the breeding ground for fear and intolerance.

The Reverend Martin Niemöller was a German pastor who had been a hero of the First World War and a role model for the early Nazis. When he turned against them, he was eventually imprisoned at Dachau.

In a comment that has resounded through the years, he said, “First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.”

In the present day, we like to think of evil as painted in stark and well-defined colours. But evil can also be mundane, pernicious, almost innocuous. For as Edmund Burke wrote, “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.”

It is our ability to recognize evil, to battle our own indifference in the face of hatred directed at others, that requires the greatest courage and the greatest insight. Sad to say, as a civilization we continue to fail on both accounts.

Since the liberation of Auschwitz, the world has witnessed much brutality against our fellow human beings: Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and the list of those damned by indifference goes on.

For collective security there must also be collective responsibility. And there can be no indifference to crimes of hate. It is why we have championed the establishment of the international criminal court and international legal instruments such as the conventions on genocide. It is also why our Prime Minister has proposed, here in this Assembly last September, the concept of responsibility to protect.

States must protect their populations, and rejecting indifference is at the foundation of this principle. It is also a founding principle of this organization.

Last year, the Secretary-General said, “The name ‘United Nations’ was coined to describe the alliance fighting to end that barbarous regime, and our organization came into being when the world had just learned the full horror of the concentration and extermination camps. It is therefore rightly said that the United Nations emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust. And a human rights agenda that fails to address anti-Semitism denies its own history.”

In order to change the course of history, to ensure that the rights of all are respected, to protect the weak and restrain the strong, we must first fight the human tendency to allow evil to simply happen when it happens to someone else.

We can accomplish this only if we work together and break the bonds of our own indifference.

In our interconnected world, we are able to witness every manner of sights and sounds from anywhere in the world in an instant. And so the expression “We have seen it all before,” is not uncommon.

It can never be so with crimes like the Holocaust. Their sheer repugnance and horror stand out in infamy. They remind us there can be no indifference to intolerance, no respect for evil.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the creation of the UN, it is appropriate we should rededicate ourselves to the causes of understanding, respect and compassion. For each of us who sits in this assembly can—and must—find common ground with the other. Our founders expected no less.

I am confident we can meet the expectations of those who came before us, and we can make the world a more secure, more prosperous, more generous and more respectful place. In this year of commemoration, we must find inspiration in our past and discover opportunity in our collective future.

This commemoration is an occasion of solemnity, but not one of acceptance or indifference. Instead, we must renew our determination to build a better world and a greater United Nations.

Remembering Martin Niemöller and the six million who died, let us join together with loud voices to speak out against hatred and indifference: “Never again! Never again!”

Never again.