UN DESIGNATES 1/27 AS ANNUAL HOLOCAUST DAY

UN unanimously adopts international Holocaust Day (Jerusalem Post)

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution to declare January 27th as the new annual international day to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. On January 27th, 1945 Aushwitz-Birkenau was liberated....

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman thanked the 191 members of the General Assembly "at this unique and historic moment ... for adopting this unprecedented resolution."

However, after the vote, Egypt's UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz complained that the day should commemorate all victims of genocide and not be limited just to victims of the Holocaust.

The resolution emphasizes both "the duty to remember" and "the duty to educate" future generations about the mass slaughter. More than a dozen countries spoke during the debate on the resolution which began Monday and ended Tuesday morning.

As the world marks the 60th anniversaries this year of both the founding of the UN and the end of World War II, Israel's Gillerman told the General Assembly on Monday that the Nazi slaughter must never be forgotten. The resolution was sponsored initially by Israel, the United States, Australia, Canada and Russia. Gillerman said Tuesday it had 104 co-sponsors.

The resolution urges individual countries to develop educational programs to try to prevent future acts of genocide.

It also rejects any denial of the Holocaust, condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity, and calls for the U.N. to establish an outreach program to encourage the public to engage in Holocaust remembrance activities.

"The UN bears a special responsibility to ensure that the Holocaust and its lessons are never forgotten and that this tragedy will forever stand as a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice," said Gillerman.

General Assembly President Jan Eliasson said it is important to remember that the UN's founding and the end of World War II are inextricably linked. The UN was "erected from the ashes of the Second World War," he said, and part of its original mission was to make sure such an "unspeakable atrocity" as the Holocaust never occurred again.

IN RELATED NEWS: Iran airs Holocaust denial drama
Iranian television broadcast a miniseries alleging that Israel assassinated an academic who “proved” the Nazi gas chambers were not used for the mass murder of Jews. “Holocaust,” a three-part drama, was aired by Tehran’s Sahar television station last week in conjunction with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

The series purports to tell the story of a French Jewish academic who discovers that the Nazi gas chambers were used for delousing, not execution, but is killed by Mossad assassins before he can publish his findings. Actors for the miniseries were provided by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, whose Al-Manar television station has produced several anti-Semitic shows.