Statement
by the Honorable Warren L. Miller, Chairman
U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
on Signing the Joint Declaration of Agreement
Between the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany
Concerning the Protection and Preservation of Places of Commemoration
Indian Treaty Room, Eisenhower Executive Office Building, White House Complex
May 19, 2003
Ambassador Ischinger, Members of the Commission, survivors of the Holocaust, honored guests:
The Joint Declaration of Agreement we have just signed sets forth a commitment by our respective governments to continue to work together on cultural matters, particularly with respect to the protection and preservation of sites associated with individuals and groups that were victims of genocide during World War II. It stresses that our nations are dedicated to the preservation of their cemeteries, places of worship, Holocaust memorials and other sites of importance. It also provides the framework for the protection of a broad range of other cultural and historic sites. In this agreement the German Government and the Government of the United States also unequivocally commit to effectively preventing in the future every form of prejudice or discrimination against any national, ethnic or religious group.
As past actions demonstrate, the mutual commitment to these issues by both our governments is strong. Today, the vast majority of the people of Germany were not alive during the Holocaust. They do not bear responsibility for what happened. But they do bear responsibility to confront the past and remember it truthfully and accurately. Germany's effort to do so must be recognized and commended. We also recognize that the present Government of Germany has demonstrated a sensitivity to and keen understanding of its moral obligation in this regard.
There is great irony and symbolism in today's ceremony. During the Holocaust as the Jews of Europe were being destroyed by the German government, most of the world, including the American government, offered no sanctuary. The European Jews had everything taken from them - including their lives. Even in death most were not afforded a burial place - they were burned, their bones crushed, their ashes scattered. Today, in the White House, the German and American governments are committing to preserve Jewish burial sites and sites associated with the murder of the Jewish people. Today is a remarkable day.
Even without today's agreement, the governments of the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany have for many years been de facto working partners in cultural preservation. We count many successes together.
Just a year ago, we commemorated together a memorial to the victims of the Little Camp at Buchenwald -- a joint project initiated by the Commission and co-sponsored by the Federal Republic of Germany and its Free State of Thuringia. On a cold, windy day with heavy rains, 1,000 people turned out for the dedication ceremony at Buchenwald. They were ordinary German citizens who felt a strong commitment to remember deeds perpetrated by their former government sixty years ago. On my many visits to Buchenwald, I have been struck by the number of school children brought to see and to learn about that place of pain and death. The Little Camp memorial has received acclaim for the intensity of its design and the integrity of its historic narrative, both of which are the result of the productive collaboration of Americans and Germans.
Recently, the Commission was asked by German authorities to join again as a partner in conjunction with a new museum at the site of the Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp. The Commission is co-sponsoring the construction of a large outdoor model of the Camp, which will be placed at the entrance to the memorial. Commission Member Amy Epstein and her husband Bruce, who are with us today, made this project a reality.
The Commission has been working inside Germany for some time. In 1991 and for several years after, the Commission played an important role in negotiating a settlement to a contentious international dispute regarding construction of a shopping center on the site of a Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg.
In 1995, the Commission led an effort to locate the boundaries of a burial site in Hillersleben, where the U.S. Army had provided medical services for a group of liberated camp inmates. Many of the victims could not be saved and were buried nearby. East German authorities subsequently cleared the site for a park. With the help of the German government and using declassified U.S. Government aerial surveillance photos, American Holocaust survivors were allowed to install a wall around the cemetery and preserve the site.
Additionally, the Commission worked with veterans of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to co-sponsor a Holocaust Memorial and to rebury victims of the Wobbelin Concentration Camp at Ludswigslust, Germany.
Outside of Germany, the Commission has also worked successfully with our German partners. On November 30th of last year, a memorial was dedicated in Riga, Latvia, to remember the 25,000 Jews - mainly women and children -- who were murdered, 1000 an hour, and buried over a two-day period in 1941, in a forest just outside Riga, known as Rumbula. A new memorial co-sponsored by the Commission in partnership with Latvian and German government related entities made this possible.
In addition to its pro-active work to protect specific sites and monuments, one of the major roles of the Commission is to ensure historical accuracy with respect to the Holocaust. In all of Europe, Germany is the example that stands out in terms of being totally truthful in confronting what its former government did. While certain other countries have been reluctant to educate their citizens about what happened, including the complicity of their own government and some of their people, Germany for many years has been uncompromisingly forthright. This process, which was part of the former West Germany's inherent identity, is now being applied throughout the country, including the area formerly under Communist rule, where complicity in Nazi crimes and other issues were not fully discussed, or were disguised with ambiguous or deceptive language prior to unification.
In closing, I especially want to thank Ambassador Ischinger for his personal efforts in advancing this agreement to conclusion. His efforts and those of many other senior German officials make abundantly clear that nearly sixty years after the Holocaust, the German commitment to the cause of remembrance is strong.
We look forward to a long and productive partnership in the years ahead.
Thank you.
