Dovid Katz and Danny-Ben Moshe have been working tirelessly to create the Seventy Years Declaration to mark the 70th anniversary of the Wansee Conference. Over 70 European Parliament members, including 8 Lithuanians, signed the declaration objecting to “attempts to obfuscate the Holocaust by diminishing its uniqueness and deeming it to be equal, similar or equivalent to Communism.” The declaration also rejects efforts to rewrite European school history books “to reflect the notion of ‘double genocide.”’

Below is the declaration which can also be viewed on Dovid’s website - http://defendinghistory.com/

The Seventy Years Declaration

on the Anniversary of the Final Solution Conference at Wannsee

On this the 70th anniversary of the formal adoption by the Nazi leadership of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Problem” we the undersigned

Remember:

With humility and sadness, the Final Solution plan which formalised and industrialised the by-then ongoing Holocaust of European Jewry

The horror and brutality of the genocidal campaign of total annihilation of European Jewry conducted by the Nazis and their collaborators

That the mass killing of European Jewry preceded that formal adoption of the Final Solution plan by half a year, and began on the Eastern Front in 1941 upon the initiation of Operation Barbarossa and the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union

That millions of non-Jews suffered in numerous ways under the Nazis and other forms of tyranny in Europe during the Second World War.

Recognise:

The Nazi campaign of annihilation of the Jewish people was philosophically, qualitatively and practically profoundly distinct and different to other forms of oppression experienced by European people during World War II, such as the horrors of Stalinism also before and after the War

Our dismay that the lessons of the Holocaust were not learnt and genocide continues to occur in the international arena

The nobility of Jewish partisans who survived ghettos or camps and went on to fight the Nazis and their allies

The efforts of European states to acknowledge forthrightly their role in the Holocaust past

That discussion about genocide in Europe must be based on the definition of the UN Genocide Convention 1948

That antisemitism continues in various forms in Europe and beyond.

Reject:

Attempts to obfuscate the Holocaust by diminishing its uniqueness and deeming it to be equal, similar or equivalent to Communism as suggested by the 2008 Prague Declaration

Equating Nazi and Soviet crimes as this blurs the uniqueness of each and threatens to undermine the important historical lessons drawn from each of these distinct experiences.

Attempts to have European history school books rewritten to reflect the notion of “Double Genocide” (“equality” or “sameness” of Nazi and Soviet crimes)

As unacceptable the glorification of Nazi Allies, and of Holocaust perpetrators and collaborators, including the Waffen SS in Estonia and Latvia, and the Lithuanian Activist Front in Lithuania

Attempts to legalise or sanitize the public display of the swastika by racist and fascist groups

Efforts to have the Holocaust remembered on one common day with the victims of Communism.

Advocate:

Distinct days and distinct programs to remember the Holocaust and other victims of other twentieth century totalitarian regimes

EU member states continue efforts to acknowledge their own roles in the destruction of European Jewry

The need for ongoing genuine Holocaust education and memorialisation across the European Union

Opposition to all forms of contemporary racism and discrimination and its manifestation, including antisemitism, contempt for Muslims, hate of Roma, homophobia, and other prejudice and intolerance generated by extremist politics.

Founding Signatories, being members of the European Parliament and of national parliaments in the European Union, who signed the Seventy Years Declaration prior to the end of 20 January 2012:

Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Member of Seimas, Lithuania

Volker Beck, Member of Bundestag, Germany

Luciana Berger, MP, United Kingdom

Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, MEP, Lithuania

Martin Callanan, MEP, United Kingdom

Boriss Cilevičs, Member of Saeima, Latvia

Paolo De Castro, MEP, Italy

The Baroness Deech D.B.E, House of Lords, United Kingdom

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP, Ireland

Sergejs Dolgopolovs, member of Saeima, Latvia

Andrew Duff MEP, United Kingdom

Louise Ellman, MP, United Kingdom

Ioan Enciu, MEP, Romania

Tanja Fajon, MEP, Slovenia

Göran Färm, MEP, Sweden

Elisa Ferreira, MEP, Portugal

Knut Fleckenstein, MEP, Germany

Mike Freer, MP, United Kingdom

Ana Maria Gomes, MEP, Portugal

Kinga Göncz, MEP, Hungary

Zita Gurmai, MEP, Hungary

Jutta Haug, MEP, Germany

Edit Herczog, MEP, Hungary

Stephen Hughes, MEP, United Kingdom

Vincenzo Iovine, MEP, Italy

Lord Janner of Braunstone, House of Lords, United Kingdom

Lukrezia Jochimsen, Member of Bundestag, Germany

Karin Kadenbach, MEP, Austria

Justinas Karosas, Member of Seimas, Lithuania

Evgeni Kirilov, MEP, Bulgaria

Jan Korte, Member of the Bundestag, Germany

Constanze Krehl, MEP, Germany

Christian Lange, Member of the Bundestag, Germany

Monika Lazar, Member of the Bundestag, Germany

Jörg Leichtfried, MEP Austria

Jo Leinen, MEP, Germany

Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP, United Kingdom

Denis MacShane, MP, United Kingdom

John Mann, MP, United Kingdom

Miguel Angel Martínez, MEP, Spain

Linda McAvan, MEP, United Kingdom

Louis Michel, MEP, Belgium

Alexander Mirsky, MEP, Latvia

Jerzy Montag, Member of Bundestag, Germany

Jan Mulder, MEP, Netherlands

Norbert Neuser, MEP, Germany

Bill Newton Dunn, MEP, United Kingdom

Matthew Offord, MP, United Kingdom

Justas Paleckis, MEP, Lithuania

Petra Pau, Member of the Bundestag, Germany

Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė, Member of Seimas, Lithuania

Bernhard Rapkay, MEP, Germany

Frédérique Ries, MEP, Belgium

Niccolò Rinaldi, MEP, Italy

Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, MEP, Germany

Julius Sabatauskas, Member of Seimas, Lithuania

Olle Schmidt, MEP, Sweden

Martin Schulz, MEP, Germany

Jutta Steinruck, MEP, Germany

Hannes Swoboda, MEP, Austria

Algirdas Sysas, Member of Seimas, Lithuania

Hannu Takkula, MEP, Finland

Charles Tannock, MEP, United Kingdom

Catherine Trautmann, MEP, France

Giommaria Uggias, MEP, Italy

Birutė Vėsaitė, Member of Seimas, Lithuania

Barbara Weiler, MEP, Germany

Prof. (em.) Gert Weisskirchen, Member of the Bundestag [1976 – 2009]

Boris Zala, MEP, Slovakia

Tatjana Ždanoka, MEP, Latvia

Gabriele Zimmer, MEP, Germany

This declaration is based on a text authored by Dovid Katz and Danny Ben-Moshe as an initiative of DefendingHistory.com. For further information, contact declaration coordinator Associate Professor Danny Ben-Moshe at: defendinghistory@gmail.com.