In solemn presentation ceremonies in the Rose Garden of the White House today, President Carter received the recommendations of his Commission on the Holocaust to commemorate the victims of the Nazis and pledged his personal efforts to help keep the civilized world forever aware of it.
The President noted that the 84-page report comes at an “appropriate time, in the period before Yom Kippur” and declared: “So I will consider and respond personally to this commission and the people of our nation with my personal prayer that the meaning of this Holocaust shall be transformed into a reaffirmation of life.”
The commission, headed by author Elie Wiesel, recommended the establishment of a museum in Washington, continuing education programs and annual days of remembrance for the six million Jews and five million non-Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Virtually all of the 34 members of the commission and the 27 members of its advisory group attended the ceremonies.
Wiesel look note of the current threats to the Jewish people and those made by the Nazis 10 years before the Holocaust began “Words must be taken seriously, ” he said. ” We must take seriously all those who threaten the Jewish people today. Jerusalem symbolizes our most fervent hope. ” He noted that “10,000 human beings were being murdered and burned every day” in the death camps close to urban centers during the Holocaust. “How was that possible?” he asked “We don’t know the answer The commission believes we must seek an answer,” he said.
Carter, in his response, said that those who perished in the Holocaust were “victims of the most unspeakable crimes in all history. ” He said that all civilized people must see to it that “never again will the world stand silent or look the other way” at the “terrible crime of genocide.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
