Israel is hoping the UN General Assembly will unanimously adopt a resolution rejecting and condemning any denial of the Holocaust and urging all nations and social media companies “to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion.”
The 193-member world body is scheduled to vote on Thursday on the resolution, which is strongly supported by Germany.
Holding the vote on January 20 has special significance: It is the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference at a villa on the shores of Berlin’s Wannsee Lake in 1942 during World War II where Nazi leaders coordinated plans for the so-called “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
The result was the establishment of Nazi death camps and the murder of nearly six million Jews, comprising one-third of the Jewish people. In addition, millions of people from other nationalities, minorities and targeted groups were killed, according to the draft resolution.
“We hope it is going to be adopted in a consensus,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told reporters on Wednesday.
“If we want this body, the UN, to succeed in preventing genocide we must remember what happened in the past and this is the goal of tomorrow’s decision.”
He said that with many Holocaust survivors passing away and the use of the internet now very prevalent “this dangerous phenomena of distorting and even denying the Holocaust became very common.”
Read the article by Edith M. Lederer in The Canberra Times.