Anne did not survive the Holocaust
"Countless men, women and children suffered the horrors of the ghettos and Nazi death camps, yet somehow survived. All of them carry a crucial message for all of us. A message about the triumph of the human spirit. A living testament that tyranny, though it may rise, will surely not prevail." - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon I always loved reading and visiting historical places, I read Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, when I was ten years old, and years later I was very excited to accept an invitation to visit the Anne Frank House in the city of Amsterdam, her diary has really left a lasting impression on me, and I look forward to visting the Museum again on my next trip to the Netherlands, I always knew that Anne's story had a sad ending, but I never imagined that reading Anne's diary would make me cry, she was a little girl, who had to grow up too fast, facing the ugly and harsh realities of what can happen when people are blinded by hate.
My family have always taught me as a child, that it is a beautiful gift to be different and tolerance is a fact of life, that is why even today I still can't understand how anyone can harm anyone, just because they have a different opinion, or because someone looks or acts differently.
Sadly, Anne did not survive the Holocaust, she and her sister died at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, for me Anne's story is a great example of why we all continue to stand up for Human Rights everywhere in the world, its not hard to imagine the horrors she would have witnessed at the Nazi Concentration Camp.
Anne's predicament, gave me a lasting painful picture in my mind of an innocent defenseless, starving and
exhausted child in tears doing hard labor, surrounded by other tortured holocaust victims, it must have been terrifying for a child.
Every hour in the Nazi concentration camp must have felt like a year in hell, she would have witnessed horrifying scenes of people slowly and painfully dying of starvation and illness around her, not to mention the terror of people disappearing around her, after being harshly led away in queues by the Nazis to be gassed collectively, wondering if and when she would become the latest victim to join the next death queue.
Birth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." - Eleanor Roosevelt It is not surprising that even Eleanor Roosevelt was impressed by Anne's story, almost everyone would recognize the iconic photo of Mrs.Roosevelt holding a poster at the UN containing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Mrs. Roosevelt, who was the First Lady of the United States of America from 1933 to 1945, and a prominent politician in her own right, during 1940s she supported the formation of the United Nations, co-founded, Freedom House, a prominent international human rights organization based in Washington, D.C. and served as the first chairperson of the UN Human Rights Commission.
Mrs. Roosevelt devoted her entire life tirelessly to fight for the rights of all human beings and described Anne Frank's diary as "one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read."
Tragically, its too late to save Anne's life and the lives of all who needlessly perished in horrific wars such as the Second World War, but its not too late to realize the value of the legacy left to us by Mrs. Roosevelt and all who did their best to bring us a step closer to World Peace and a better future, by completing the mammoth, almost impossible task of drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, acceptable to all nations around the world, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 10th of December 1948.
During the years of the Second World War, torture and death penalty was not uncommon, the birth of the United Nations, gave life to international law, which finally universally established an understanding of the global rights of Human Beings.
Selfless Sacrifices of Heroes"Tom Lantos was fond of saying that even the littlest actions, the smallest of our daily deeds, can do much to leave this earth better, less evil, less selfish, less monstrous than we found it. And he stressed that doing these things, even in a modest way, gives you the energy to keep moving forward. On this day of days, that seems to me to be good advice." - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon Years after reading Anne's story and during my visit to Washington D.C., I was honoured to meet the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the United States Congress, in 1947 he was awarded an academic scholarship to study in the United States on the basis of an essay he wrote about Mrs. Roosevelt's husband, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Congressman Tom Lantos, like Mrs. Roosevelt, dedicated his life for the promotion of Human Rights and to give a voice to all those in need, sadly he passed away on February 11, 2008.
Yet, I can still vividly remember his lovely Hungarian accent, he had the great gift of selflessly caring for those in need everywhere in the world, during our meeting he told me that he owed his life to Raoul Wallenberg, a courageous Swedish diplomat, who during the Second World War, went out of his way, continuously risking his life, to save as many people as he could in the city of Budapest in Hungry, even issuing and distributing "protective passports" to Jews, declaring the holder a citizen of neutral Sweden, thus protecting the holder from the Nazi's cruel and criminal discriminative actions.
Regrettably, Mr. Wallenberg's heroic acts cost him his life, to this day, the circumstances of his sudden disappearance in the Second World War and death remains a mystery.
During my first visit to Capitol Hill, I could not resist to tell Congressman Tom Lantos of how I felt after I read Anne Frank's story and since he mentioned Mr.Roosevelt during our conversation, I also mentioned to him how I admired Mrs.Roosevelt's historical accomplishments, he was very kind and then told me, that Holocaust survivors like himself are committed to keep reminding the world of the tragedies of the Second World War, especially the Holocaust, which was a mass murder of innocent people like Anne Frank, who were unlucky to live in a time in which Human Rights were virtually non existent, and to also remind the world of the courageous and selfless sacrifices of heroes, like Mr.Raul Wallenberg, who lost or risked their lives for others, and of course to continue to remember and honour all who fought and dedicated their lives for the global protection, defense and promotion of Human Rights like Mrs.Eleanor Roosevelt.
It is hard to describe in words how it feels to lose someone special, Congressman Tom Lantos, will be missed by all, but his remarkable legacy towards humanity lives on, his wife, Mrs.Annette Lantos, is determined to continue, she once wrote "Every day we tried to fight the good fight on behalf of those who often can't fight for themselves."
Mrs. Lantos also a Holocaust Survivor and a Human Rights Activist in her own right, Chariman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, like Mrs.Roosevelt, has made it her life's mission to continue to fight for the human rights and dignity of people in every corner of the world.
Today, Holocaust Survivors and Human Rights Activists around the world continue to fight for global recognition of Human Rights, despite facing all kinds of hardships they are determined to pass on an important message to the next generation, we must support them, their efforts have granted us many important international treaties, such as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) and Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981), in my opinion it is a crime to deny Holocaust Survivors and all people living on this Earth their Human Rights and the right to live in peace.
Millennium Development Goals without Human Rights is Impossible".....every action counts, to end torture, abolish the death penalty and to protect people from all acts of discrimination." - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon The importance of Human Rights to promote a better quality of life and a better future, are even more evident, in the great promise of all nations, working together to accomplish the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, which would never have been possible without the United Nations or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As we are quickly reaching the 2015 MDGs deadline, we must remind States, that Millennium Development Goals without Human Rights is impossible and that more needs to be done to protect people and fight impunity for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Just like any little girl, Anne would have loved to live in a world changing for the better, of course, we live in an imperfect world, and sometimes the mission to make the world a better place for all feels hopeless, but what counts is that we continue all efforts to improve things, realizing our obligation to globally defend, protect and promote Human Rights is already a major step forward in the fight against evil.
How did the world fail to prevent the Holocaust and other atrocities? Imagine just decades ago, the ugly practice of discrimination was acceptable and in some cases even encouraged, it was acceptable that an individual or even a State, could torture anyone using any excuse such as the victim's gender, race, colour or religion.
If we forget the Holocaust, then all those dark times are guaranteed to return. Yet even in this day and age, despite the horrors that we all witnessed in the last century, a lot remains to be done in order to promote global Human Rights and strengthen the United Nations, there are States, who have signed the Charter of the United Nations, but did not sign or ratify important treaties such the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, even though all nations agree that torture cannot be justified or tolerated, at any time, in any form or manner whatever.
It is not uncommon that even after signing and ratifying International treaties, many States have not really "updated" their local legal systems to comply with international law, this is unacceptable, legal empowerment of women and the poor, the shocking rise of slavery in the form of Human trafficking, the eradication of all forms of discrimination and the abolition of Capital punishment are just a handful of many issues that need to be addressed without delay.
If we forget the Holocaust then all those dark times are guaranteed to return. In order to build a more peaceful world of coexistence, it is very important for us to remember the value of Human Rights and educate our children about the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters of human history. It is also important that we do not hesitate to speak out in the face of bigotry and hatred, and to prevent these unforgivable crimes to ever happen again.
I thank each and every person, who is courageous to risk their lives or dedicate their lives in order to fight evil in this world, protecting our environment and all living beings on this Earth, it would be impossible to live in this world full of hate without your sacrifices, I realize that uttering the phrase "Thank you" is not comparable to the debt that I and everyone owes you for your sacrifice.
So I end this tribute to all Victims of Injustice and Human Rights Activists, with one of my favorite passages in Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl,
"... in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquillity will return again." - Anne Frank
