Date: 27/01/05
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: E Rasool: 60th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz

Message from Ebrahim Rasool, Premier of the Western Cape, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Poland, delivered at the Great Synagogue, 88 Hatfield Street, Gardens 27 January 2005


It is not difficult to imagine the utter horror of the allied liberators when they entered Auschwitz sixty years ago today. Like so many of the killing fields of Nazi Germany, the extent of human suffering and malicious brutality have been etched on our consciousness as what was probably the cold blooded, systematic and most deliberate genocide the world has ever seen.

Over the past few days, I have been seeking for the words to describe what Auschwitz means to us today? And as a non-Jew, as a Muslim, I have been defining in my mind what message Auschwitz carries to people of all religions all over our world?
Auschwitz was, in its broadest sense, a crime against humanity. Such a phrase presupposes the existence of a common humanity, a sense of humanism that is able to judge and abhor crimes committed against our fellow human beings.

Such crimes must also serve as warnings. The Final Solution was not simply a temporary aberration, and historically frozen event. We know that the capacity to commit crimes of this kind - or even simply to allow them to happen by remaining silent - is also part of the human makeup.

We also now know that the crimes committed against our parents and grandparents, and even our great grandparents, may mark a family for many generations. They do not end with the death of a victim or a survivor as our own Truth Commission has shown. History and memory help teach us all about what should never be allowed to happen.

I think, above all, that this day has come to express what we mean when we talk of our common humanity, when we talk about sharing, about partnerships and about how we can all make sure that nothing like Auschwitz ever, ever happens again.

I would like to end with a short quotation from Primo Levi, whose remarkable lack of bitterness despite his harrowing experience at Auschwitz, seems to me best to express our common humanity and love of justice:
"I must admit that if I had in front of me one of our persecutors of those days, certain known faces, certain old lies, I would be tempted to hate, and with violence too; but exactly because I am not a Fascist or a Nazi, I refuse to give way to this temptation. I believe in reason and discussion as supreme instruments of progress, and therefore I repress hatred even within myself: I prefer justice."
Enquiries: Clayton Edmund Wakeford
Communications Director
Office of the Premier of the Western Cape
Cell: 082 827 8792
Tel: (021) 483 3528
Email: cwakeford@pgwc.gov.za
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Western Cape
Provincial Government
27 January 2005