annual report 2010

ANNUAL REPORT 2010
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
The Aladdin Project
The Aladdin Project’s goal is to promote harmonious intercultural relations, particularly among
Jews and Muslims, through dialogue, mutual respect, education and knowledge of History. Through
its initiatives, it strives to reject denial and trivialization of the Holocaust, competing memories, antiSemitism and all forms of racism, discrimination and exclusion.
Patrons
Abdoualye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal
Jacques Chirac, former President of the French Republic
HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan
Gerhard Schroeder, Former Chancellor of Germany
Sheikha Haya Al-Khalifa of Bahrain
Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, Former President of Mauritania
Presidents
Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the Aladdin Project (NGO)
David de Rothschild, President of the Aladdin Project Fund
5
Table Of Contents
President’s Letter
Executive Director’s Message
Year in Review
• Raising awareness: Holocaust-related conferences in the
Muslim world
• Reaching a broad audience: Use of the Internet, cinema and
television to disseminate knowledge • Reversing the trend: Countering denial and trivialization
page 7
page 9
page 11
page 12
page 16
page 21
• Educating the young:The past, a bridge to the future
page 25
• Media monitoring: Exposing purveyors of hate, encouraging
voices of reason
page 28
• Finding partners: Development of our network
page 29
Looking ahead
Governance
Financial Statements
Recognition
Annexes
page 33
page 36
page 39
page 41
page 42
© Agnès Anne
President’s Letter
Presenting this first Annual Report 2010 is an emotional moment for me. Indeed, the Aladdin
Project, born under the auspices of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and independent
since late 2009, is a bold initiative: that of embarking on a long but absolutely necessary journey on
an almost unbeaten track, fraught with risks, with no guarantee of success.
The field?
The Arab-Muslim world, a universe into which I had not previously ventured.
The goal?
To pass on the history of the Holocaust with rigor, refusing all denials, amalgams and trivializations,
while respecting the memory of others. To reconnect the thread of coexistence between Muslims
and Jews by teaching the centuries-long history, happy and violent, of their past relationships. Finally,
to promote the values of mutual respect and dignity, opposing anti-Semitism, xenophobia and all
forms of racism.
The method?
Passing on knowledge of history and cultures to those who have no access to them.
The means were self-evident: books, the Internet, art, meetings, discussions ... here ... there ... in the
languages of those to whom we were reaching out. To this general framework, we had to add other
key elements: finding enlightened partners among Muslims, Jews and others, attached to the same
values and goals; and working with a competent team with diverse skills and cultures. And all this
without complacence, without looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, but with lucidity and
by staying on course.
Presenting this first report is, I repeat, very emotional, because I think our approach has been
vindicated. I do not mean, of course, that in a year and a half, we have managed to achieve all the
goals I have outlined, but because the various projects that we have completed and are briefly
described in the following pages, represent the first successful steps in a medium and long-term
strategy.
We have passed on, and we have received.
We invited our interlocutors to come to us, and we went to them.
We talked about books that speak of places, and we showed these places.
We spoke the language of those we addressed, and they listened to us.
We welcomed debate and did not shy away from confrontation: and every time we profited by
learning how best to convey what we wanted to share.
We thus established trust and partnership with more and more people, from all cultures and
different countries.
7
With this confidence, this common conviction that we must act in the name of truth and justice,
public and private institutions, intellectuals, politicians, men of faith, teachers and students came in
ever increasing numbers, often with great courage, to join us or to encourage us.Their names are on
the pages of this report or on our website. Today, in fact, the Aladdin Project is cited as an example
in many national and international forums because of the bold, novel actions we are undertaking.
Already affiliate organizations are being set up in the United States, Belgium, Spain, and Turkey by
those who wish to expand and broaden our actions and their impact. We have also been asked to
carry out projects in France and Europe, and to partner with others in the United Kingdom and the
United States: more about this in the following pages.
To all of them, I want to say thank you.
I also want to thank all members of our Board and all the different personalities who sit on the
committees that nourish our efforts with their expert advice and sharp reflections. They have been
indispensable to the success of our initiatives. And I am pleased that I have succeeded in bringing
together an equal number of women and men, all of them of great quality.
Our thanks also go to the French Government, and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for
their support, and to UNESCO and in particular its Director General, Irena Bokova, for the trust
they have placed in us.
Finally, I wish to thank our talented Executive Director, Abe Radkin, and his (too) small team, as well
as my friends and volunteers, who have implemented the projects that were entrusted to them with
such skill and dedication.
A note of concern: we have so far relied first and foremost on the generosity of several private
foundations, particularly the French Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and the Edmond J.
Safra Philanthropic Foundation, but we need more financial resources to allow us to implement the
important projects that have been proposed.
I must also point out that so far we have begun to pass on the knowledge of Judaism, its history
and culture to the Arab and Muslim world because a state, Iran, and some extremist fringe in other
countries, poison public opinion with their denial and anti-Semitic propaganda, the principal aim
being to delegitimize the State of Israel, but also going as far as incitement to murder. We will, of
course, continue. But in a world where ignorance is combined with Islamophobia, it is also necessary
to pass on the knowledge of Islam, Muslim cultures and civilizations, and the history of countries that
have a Muslim majority population. We have already begun to do so by explaining the fundamentals
of Islam on our website. We do not seek here a cosmetic balance or a trivial reciprocity; we simply
know that for dialogue, understanding and respect to take root, everyone must know the other in
its truth and its own history.
I hope that reading our first annual report will give readers the desire to join us and help us... And
if some of the projects completed or in progress give you new ideas, please share them with us.
Anne-Marie Revcolevschi
8
The Year that Showed the Way
In many ways, 2010 was a decisive year for the Aladdin Project. Having experienced initial success
the previous year with a high-profile launch conference and statements of support from prominent
figures in the Muslim world, we were now stepping into unchartered territory by organizing ten
Holocaust-related conferences across the Middle East and North Africa. In the early days of 2010,
questions abounded: Would a virulent backlash dissuade Arab and Muslim personalities from
cooperating with the Aladdin Project and “burn” it? How many books would be downloaded by
Arab and Persian readers? How would Iranians react to Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah? And what if the
Muslim personalities and leaders didn’t show up for the visit to Auschwitz?
We now know the answers to all these questions and you will find them on the pages of this report.
They show that in the modern world of globalized communications a young organization with a
small but highly motivated staff and a meagre budget can make a serious difference, if it has original
ideas and connects the right dots. On the basis of these results, and judging by the growing number
of proposals for cooperation we receive from individuals, institutions, international organizations and
governments, I can safely say that the Aladdin Project has established itself as a credible platform
and a facilitator of intercultural exchange and cooperation, particularly between Jews and Muslims.
All this would not have been possible, however, without the courage and commitment of our friends
and partners across the Muslim world. We are also indebted to the generosity of our donors and
the trust of our institutional partners, some of which, like the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
UNESCO and the City of Paris, took part in funding our joint activities, thus helping us implement
projects that required far greater financial resources than that reflected on our balance sheet.
These partners were actively involved in two projects that bore results in the early months of 2011:
an international delegation’s visit to Auschwitz and the telecast of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah in the
Muslim world. We have decided to include them in this annual report, because in both cases the
bulk of the preparations were undertaken in 2010.
As in any initiative that seeks to change deeply entrenched perceptions, our vision of a world free
of the mistrust and the stereotypes that poison Jewish-Muslim relations today can only be realized
in the long term, but 2010 showed the scope of the achievable. In January 2010, the main challenge
was to find the right way. Now, with a number of innovative projects in the pipeline, it’s about finding
the means. That, in itself, is an important step forward.
Abe Radkin • Executive Director
9
YEAR IN REVIEW
Raising awareness: Holocaust-related
conferences in the Muslim world
In January and February 2010, the Aladdin
Project, in partnership with the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, organized a series of public
lectures on the Holocaust in the Middle East
and North Africa with several objectives: Firstly,
familiarize a broader public in Muslim-majority
societies with Holocaust history. Secondly,
encourage face-to-face dialogue and discussion
between Jews and Muslims, particularly in
places where once-thriving Jewish communities
have all but disappeared whereas anti-Semitic
stereotypes abound, and thirdly, create a
network of intellectuals, academics and young
people in each city.
The events, entitled “Reading Primo Levi,”
focused on the Arabic, Turkish and Persian
translations of the Italian author and survivor’s
book, If This Is a Man, and took place in Cairo,
Tunis, Rabat, Casablanca, Istanbul, Amman,
Baghdad, Erbil, Nazareth and Jerusalem on
or around January 27, the anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, designated
by the United Nations General Assembly as
International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Prior to the events, certain diplomats and
experts had expressed serious misgivings,
given the long-standing taboo surrounding the
Holocaust across the Arab world, where for long
decades it has often been denied, minimized or
perceived as a “pretext” for the creation of the
State of Israel. Complicating the situation was
the heightened state of tension in the region in
the aftermath of the Israeli military operations
in Gaza.
12
Despite the dire predictions, however, the
conferences took place as planned and reached
their objectives: breaking a taboo and explaining
the specific nature of the Holocaust. About 1,500
intellectuals, academics, historians, human rights
activists, teachers and students participated in
the ten events and listened to speeches by 50
Holocaust historians, literary experts, Aladdin
Project board members, as well as Arab and
Muslim intellectuals and historians. At every
conference, a couple of chapters of Primo
Levi’s book were read out in Arabic (Turkish
in Istanbul) and presentations were followed
by debates where the panelists responded to
questions ranging from Jewish resistance during
the Holocaust to the position of Arab leaders
and individuals during that period. Interestingly,
there were few questions about the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
Three factors were crucial in assuring the
successful outcome of the conferences:
• The unambiguous and courageous stance
of the Arab and Muslim panelists who vehemently denounced Holocaust denial and trivialization and rejected any parallels with other
issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict;
• The intellectual quality and clarity of the historians and literary experts who travelled to
these cities from Europe;
• And, of course, the diplomatic and logistical
support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and French cultural centres and institutes
in the Middle East and North Africa.
Measuring impact
Beyond the fulfilment of the three initial
objectives of the project – familiarizing a broader
Muslim public with Holocaust history, promoting
a frank dialogue between Jews and Muslims,
and creating a network of supporters – other
outcomes of the events were as follows:
• The relatively extensive media coverage of the
events, particularly in the Arab world, was such
that Aljazeera television devoted a live primetime debate program with three Arab commentators entitled, “Scope of the debate about the
Aladdin Project.” As a result, while 1,500 people
took part in the conferences, millions across the
Muslim world were informed of them.
• In one country – Morocco – the conference
triggered a public debate after André Azoulay, in
pointing out the courageous stance of Mohammed V against the Vichy regime’s impositions
against his Jewish subjects, proposed that Holocaust education be introduced in the country’s
universities. Several editorialists and NGOs,
including the “Collectif Modernité et Démocratie” argued in favor of the proposal and also
called for the history of the Moroccan Jewish
community to be taught to young students.
• The presence of many young bloggers and
social activists resulted in a flurry of blogs,
commentaries and debates on the Internet that
continued for several weeks after the events.
Some of the commentators repeated the old
anti-Semitic and Holocaust denying clichés, but
interestingly they were challenged by many
of their peers who, while not well-informed,
showed an interest in that period of history.
• The events allowed the Aladdin Project to consolidate its network of intellectuals, historians, academics and young activists in different countries.
Moreover, many of the Arab and Turkish
panelists, having been among the first to support the Aladdin Project after its official launch in
March 2009, became the key points of reference
in their countries for our subsequent initiatives.
• The conferences and the resulting media
coverage increased our website’s traffic, with
a 30% rise in the number of visitors to our
multilingual website in February, while more
“Reading Primo Levi”
conferences in numbers:
•10 cities, 14 events
• 50 panelists from 12 nations
• More than 1,500 people attended
(including 10 parliamentarians and
ministers,12 university presidents
and deans, 19 ambassadors, 35
bloggers)
• 450 paperback copies of "If This Is
a Man" were distributed or sold
• The conferences were covered by:
7 TV stations (including Aljazeera
and France 24 Arabic)
•15 radio stations
• 6 news agencies
• 85 newspaper articles
• 32 blogs
• 1,200 comments posted
on Arabic-language websites
13
than 1,000 books were downloaded from the
online library during the same month, higher
than the other months of the year.
• One initial concern – that an avalanche of media
and political attacks in reaction to the events
would make it impossible for Arab intellectuals
and personalities to continue to work with the
Aladdin Project - never materialized. Negative
backlash was in fact restricted to Hamas,
Hezbollah and a few ultranationalist fringe
groups, who predictably labelled the Aladdin
Project as a “Zionist” initiative and described
the conferences as “an attempt to overshadow
the Goldstone report”!
• Many ideas and suggestions were put forward
by the Muslim participants in the conferences.
One general comment made in almost every
meeting was that the younger generations
were totally unaware of the centuries-long
presence of Jewish communities in these
countries. Once we recognized the need
for accurate, easy-to-read history books
on this subject, a new project was launched
(See “Shared Histories” project on p. 26)
To conclude, these conferences challenged a
decades-long taboo surrounding the Holocaust
in Arab societies, making it easier for intellectuals
and young activists alike to express themselves
openly on the subject and paving the way for
other activities and initiatives of this nature
in these countries. After the conferences, the
Aladdin Project consolidated its network of
contacts in each of the cities. Many of the Arab
and Muslim personalities who took part in the
conferences later accepted our invitation to visit
Auschwitz on February 1, 2011.
Others continued to work with us on the
development of new projects and joined the
different committees of the Aladdin Project.
Panelists
• Cairo
Intellectuals Aly El-Samman and Tarek Heggy,
Ambassador Jean-Felix Paganon, poetess Hala
Aziz, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Serge Klarsfeld and
professor of literature Philippe Mesnard
• Tunis
Jacques Andréani, Serge Klarsfeld, literary expert
Anny Dayan-Rosenman, Ambassador Pierre Menat,
historian Mohammed Fantar, commentator Ftouh
Souhail
• Istanbul
Claude Lanzmann, intellectual Cengiz Aktar,
historians Jean-François Forge, Ilber Ortayli, Nora
Seni and Naim Güleryüz, Ambassador Bernard
Emié, Israeli Consul General Moshe Kamhi
• Baghdad
Serge Klarsfeld, Abe Radkin, Ambassadors François
Zimeray and Boris Boillon, Prof. Adel Al-Kayar
• Erbil
Serge Klarsfeld, historian Kamel Mudher, intellectual
Hussein Sinjari, French Consul General Frederic Tissot
• Rabat
André Azoulay, philosopher Abdou Filali-Ansary,
historian Jamaa Baida, intellectual Driss Khrouz,
Ambassador Bruno Joubert, Anne-Marie
Revcolevschi, historian Joel Kotek, literary expert
Luba Jurgenson
• Amman
Serge Klarsfeld, Abe Radkin, intellectuals Amira
Mostafa and Oreib Rantawi, Ambassador Corinne
Breuzé, Israeli Ambassador Dani Nevo
• Nazareth and Jerusalem
Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Jean Mouttapa, historians
François Lafon and Joseph Chetrit, Prof. Mohammed
Dajani, intellectual Khalid Kasab, French Consul
General Jean-Christian Coppin
• Casablanca
Joel Kotek, Luba Jurgenson, French Consul General
Pierre Voillery
14
15
Reaching a broad audience:
Use of the Internet, cinema and
television to disseminate knowledge
To reach out to the unreachable, to allow vast
swathes of populations in the Middle East, Asia
and Africa who have no access to reliable information in their own mass media, particularly
when the subject has anything to do with Jews
or the Holocaust, is an important part of our
mission. The increasing penetration of the Internet and satellite television in these societies is
radically changing the picture, making it possible
for the first time in generations to break the
walls of censorship and disinformation.
A multilingual website
- www.projetaladin.org From the very beginning, the Aladdin Project
made the Internet a primary tool in its strategy
by setting up a multilingual website in English,
French, Arabic, Persian and Turkish that was
launched in 2009 to offer simple and accurate
information on the Holocaust and Jewish religion, history and culture, as well as a briefer on
Islam and the history of Jewish-Muslim relations
in different countries.
In 2010, in response to readers’ comments
and to facilitate access to the growing body of
materials being constantly added, the multilingual website had to undergo a radical reorganization and was re-launched in September:
a new homepage includes the presentation of
our organization, activities and news with links to
Aladdin Online Library and historical databases.
16
As part of the Aladdin Project’s mission to promote mutual knowledge, a brief guide to the
history, liturgy and practices of Islam for nonMuslims, validated by the eminent Moroccan
scholar, Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, has been
added to the website.
A new feature of the website is "Different
Voices, One Future,” a series of podcasts in
which people with different cultural, social and
religious perspectives in Europe, Africa and the
Middle East express their views on anti-Semitism, racism and intercultural relations. A dozen
of these podcasts are already online.
After the posting of the new site in September,
we received 934 new applications for subscription to our newsletter, which is now distributed
to a list of 7,000 emails in French and 3,000 in
English. In 2010, we received 683 messages of
encouragement or queries from site visitors.
The multilingual website received an average
of 13,000 visits per month in 2010. Turkey,
Iran, Morocco, Egypt, the United States, France,
Canada, Algeria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia had
the highest number of visitors during the year.
67.81% were new visitors and 32.19% had
visited the website before. The fact that almost
a third of visitors returned to the website shows
that the content was relevant to them. Visitors
spent an average of 4 minutes 22 seconds to
view the information.
The main sources of traffic were search engines
(70.83%), referring sites (19.25%) and direct
traffic (9.92%). This meant that the website
was well referenced in search tools. The traffic
from social networking websites – Facebook
in particular – showed an upward trend in the
closing months of the year, but much work
remained to be done to raise the Aladdin
Project’s profile in the social networking media.
It must be added that no advertising campaign
has yet been launched.
Aladdin Online Library
- wwww.aladdinlibrary.org The Aladdin Project’s online library was the first
digital library in Arabic and Persian that offered
subscribers free access to e-books on the basis
of special arrangements with publishers, fully
respecting authors’ moral rights and royalties.
By the end of 2010, 19,643 copies of Primo
Levi’s If This Is a Man, Anne Frank’s Diary of a
Young Girl, Shlomo Venezia’s Sonderkommando and Philippe Burrin’s Hitler and the Jews
– all translated into Arabic and Persian for the
first time by the Aladdin Project and published
in partnership with Editions le Manuscrit, had
been downloaded by subscribers around the
world. The books are currently being offered by
at least 40 online libraries in Persian and Arabic.
In 2010, ten more books (five in Arabic, five
in Persian) were translated: Shoah by Claude
Lanzmann (Fayard), I Am the Last Jew –
Treblinka (1942-1943) by Chil Rajchman (Les
Arènes), The Final Solution: A Genocide by
Donald Bloxham (Oxford University Press)
and The Holocaust: Impossible to Forget by
Anne Grynberg (Gallimard), as well as the first
volume of The destruction of European Jews by
Raul Hilberg (Holmes & Meier).
The books have been chosen by the Book Committee of the Aladdin Project, chaired by editor
and publisher Jean Mouttapa. Other members
of the committee include historians Henry
Rousso and Joel Kotek, Lebanese author Djénane
Kareh Tager, sociologist and scholar Joseph Maila,
philosopher Jean-François Colosimo, who is also
President of France’s National Centre for Books,
and Moroccan author Rachid Benzine.
The books will be added to the library in 2011
once the long process of obtaining paper and
digital rights from the publishers has been
completed. The paperback editions will be
launched at the National Library of France and
the Frankfurt International Book Fair.
The online library received an average of 2,300
visits in 2010, the countries with the largest
number of visitors being Egypt, Iran, Algeria,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France,
Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Britain.
87.02% were new visitors and 12.98% had
visited the website before. The main sources of
traffic were: 60.17% from referring sites, 31.26%
from search engines and 8.57% direct traffic.
The majority of visitors were directed from
Facebook and other social networking websites.
Aladdin Online Library
A Web site in 5 languages
www.aladdinlibrary.org
www.projetaladin.org
17
10 New books of the Aladdin Library :
The Arabic version of books by Raul Hilberg, Anne Grynberg
and Claude Lanzmann and the Persian version of books
by Daniel Bloxham and Chil Rajchman
18
Cinema and television:
Telecast of Claude
Lanzmann’s Shoah
subtitled in Persian,
Turkish and Arabic
The work that began in 2009 with translation
of books expanded in 2010 to include cinema
and television, media that exert a rapidly
growing influence in the Arab and Muslim
world, where satellite television stations have
in recent years broken the traditional state
monopoly over broadcasting.
The Aladdin Project subtitled the film "Shoah"
by Claude Lanzmann in its entirety (over 9
hours and 30 minutes) in Arabic, Persian and
Turkish. In September 2010, we acquired
exclusive rights for the Arabic, Persian and
Turkish versions of the film. We then entered
protracted discussions with several television
stations to have the film shown for audiences
in Iran, Turkey and the Arab world.
Shoah shown in Iran
For Iran, we reached an agreement with Pars
satellite channel broadcasting from Los Angeles,
to show the entire film in one-hour segments
starting on March 7, 2011. Pars TV was the first
major Iranian satellite television broadcasting
from abroad and is widely regarded as having a
large audience inside the country.
On March 7, 2011, Iranians were able to watch,
26 years after its creation, "Shoah" subtitled in
Farsi and telecast in Iran via the satellite channel
Pars. Pars TV presenter Alireza Meybodi called
the telecast of Shoah in Persian an "historic
moment.” In his introduction prior to the start
of the first episode, the presenter described
Holocaust denial as “a scourge that has nothing
to do with the great culture and civilization of
Iran.”
The launch was marked by a conference
at UNESCO in Paris in the presence of its
Director General, Irina Bokova, French Minister
of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand, Aladdin Project
president Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and Claude
Lanzmann.
More than four hundred personalities,
intellectuals, writers, ambassadors, senior
government officials, editors and journalists
were present to watch live the first episode of
the film subtitled in Farsi and broadcast in Iran.
19
The projection was followed by a panel
discussion moderated by journalist Philippe
Dessaint with Claude Lanzmann, Anne-Marie
Revcolevschi, Iranian sociologist and writer
Chahla Chafiq, Ambassador for Human Rights
Francois Zimeray, Ladan Boroumand from the
Foundation for Human Rights in Iran, historian
Alexandre Adler and Iranian journalist and
author, Nasser Etemadi.
The Iranian panelists pointed out that in their
view many in Iran would be interested to watch
Impact of Shoah’s
telecast in Iran:
1. F or the first time since 2006, when the
Iranian President organized an “international
conference” of Holocaust deniers in Tehran,
the Iranian public had the possibility of
watching exceptional testimonies on the
facts of the Holocaust..
2. P
ars TV received 900 phone calls and 2000
emails from viewers in Iran after the broadcast of Shoah.
3. A
ll major Persian media outside Iran (with
big audiences inside Iran) reported the
event:Voice of America Farsi TV, BBC Persian,
Deutsche Welle Persian, RFI Persian, Radio
Liberty, Al-Arabiya Farsi.
4. M
ore than 300 articles and dispatches in
state-run news agencies, newspapers and
radio and television denounced the telecast as “Israeli propaganda” and attacked
the Aladdin Project as “a Zionist entity.” The
Islamic Republic usually maintains silence on
such issues and its strong reaction showed
that the telecast had an impact on certain
sections of the population.
5. D
ozens of websites in Persian, representing a
wide range of opinions, reported the event.
6. "Shoah" being shown in Iran was covered in
more than 300 articles in France and abroad.
20
a film like Shoah, because since 2005 denial
or trivialization of the Holocaust have been a
recurring theme in the state-run press and
media, at the same time arousing the curiosity
and interest of those who have never had the
possibility of watching exceptional testimonies
on the facts of the Holocaust. The panelists’
viewpoint was later validated by television
viewers’ comments reaching Pars TV, as well as
the angry reaction of the Iranian government
(see box).
Shoah subtitled in Turkish
In Turkey, Ibrahim Sahin, CEO of the country’s
state television, TRT, accepted our request to
telecast the full nine-and-a-half version of Shoah,
subtitled in Turkish, in October 2011.
The Aladdin Project organized the screening of
Shoah subtitled in Turkish at Istanbul International Film Festival in the presence of Claude
Lanzmann. In an exceptional arrangement, the
full version of the film was screened on three
occasions. The event was covered by leading
Turkish newspapers including Hurriyet, Milliyet,
Sabah and Radikal. At the beginning of the first
screening, Lanzmann made a speech about the
film and the next day he gave a two-hour "master class" before an audience of young directors
and producers. The session was moderated by
the star presenter for the Turkish channel 24.
Turkish director Dervis Zaim told the Turkish
press that watching Shoah in the 1980s had
such a profound impact on him that he decided
to become a director.
Shoah in Arabic
An agreement with the Cairo-based Egyptian
TV channel, Al-Mehwar, to broadcast Shoah
in July 2011 was postponed indefinitely after
the political upheaval in the country. Several
other Arabic television broadcasters have been
contacted and one, the Dubai-based Al-Hurra
TV, has accepted to broadcast the film. Talks are
ongoing to organize a telecast in autumn 2011.
© Erez Lichtfeld
Reversing the trend:
Countering denial and trivialization
The core mission of the Aladdin Project has
been, from its very inception, to promote
awareness of Holocaust history in the Arab and
Muslim world not only to counter denial and
trivialization, but also to encourage a deeper
understanding of the evils of fascist, anti-Semitic
and racist ideologies and regimes.
Since 2005, Iran alone has published more than
330 virulently anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial
books in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and other Muslim
world languages. Egyptian, Lebanese (Hezbollah)
and Syrian television stations, Jordanian
bookshops, book fairs in different Middle Eastern
capitals and many Arabic-language newspapers
continue to propagate anti-Semitism and deny,
trivialize or invert the Holocaust. In addition to
our other activities described elsewhere in this
report, we worked on two specific actions in
2010 to counter this trend:
• Organize a high-profile visit to Auschwitz by
an international delegation that would also
include senior political, religious and civil society representatives from across the Muslim
world (The visit itself took place on February
1, 2011).
• Bring to bear diplomatic pressure on governments that allow the distribution of Holocaust
denial literature in book fairs, etc.
21
© Erez Lichtfeld
Visit to Auschwitz of an
international delegation
An unprecedented visit to Auschwitz by more
than 200 leaders and personalities from the
Middle East, Africa, Asia, America and Europe –
the majority of whom came from Muslim nations
– was intended to send a strong message: the
Iranian President and other Holocaust deniers
in the Muslim world do not speak in the name
of all Muslims. Holocaust denial in the 21st
century is intolerable and Muslims, like other
members of the global community, have every
right and duty to participate in its United
Nations-designated commemoration.
When the visit took place on February 1, at the
joint invitation of the Aladdin Project, UNESCO
and the City of Paris, the message could not
have been clearer. On the eve of the visit, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Chairman of
the Islamic Conference Organization, declared
at a press conference hosted by Paris Mayor
Bertrand Delanoe: “I cut short my participation
at the African Summit to be with you on this
historic visit, because the worst attitude is one
of doing nothing and waiting, in the hope that
things will sort themselves out.”
The international delegation to Auschwitz was
led by Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President
of the Aladdin Project, David de Rothschild,
President of the Aladdin Project Fund, Irina
Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, and
Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris.
22
International dignitaries included Asha-Rose
Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United
Nations representing Ban Ki-moon, former
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the
former Presidents of Croatia, Mauritania and
Benin, Stepjan Mesic, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall
and Nicephore Soglo, and President of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Mevlut Cavusoglu. Also present were special
envoys and representatives of Heads of State and
Government of Poland, France, Israel, USA, Russia,
Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq and the mayors of
Paris, Madrid, Bucharest, Erbil (Iraq), Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Meknes (Morocco), Libreville (Gabon), Cotonou (Benin), Sarajevo, Ouagadougou
(Burkina Faso) and Bamako (Mali).
The delegation included political, religious and
intellectual figures from Britain, France, Germany,
Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan,
Palestine, Poland, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey
and the United States. (See Annex for the full list.)
After a tour of Birkenau extermination
camp, along with ten survivors who came to
share their experiences, delegation members
gathered at the International Monument for an
ecumenical ceremony of Jewish, Christian and
Muslim prayers.The prayers were led by former
Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Cardinal André
Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, and Dr. Mustafa
Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia. The visit came to
a conclusion with a landmark speech by Samuel
Pisar in the name of all the survivors.
Many personalities who could not join the
international delegation sent messages of
solidarity, among them Prince Hassan of Jordan,
the Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr. Ali Goma'a, the
Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Dr. Ahmed AlTayeb, the Grand Mufti of the Caucasus Sheikh
Allahshukur Pashazada, and the Mayor of Berlin
Klaus Wowereit.
© Erez Lichtfeld
To conclude, the visit
to Auschwitz has:
• Sent a resounding message by Muslim leaders
and personalities to Holocaust deniers in the
Muslim world: Not in our name!
• Provided an opportunity for a group of
Muslim leaders and intellectuals to become
acquainted with the specific nature of the
Holocaust. All, in their own way and according
to the specific condition in their societies,
have reaffirmed their willingness to work
with the Aladdin Project on these issues.
• In countries like Turkey, significantly raised
public awareness of the Holocaust as a result
of extensive media coverage and articles by
opinion makers.
• Five years after the conference of Holocaust
deniers in Tehran, created a new point of
reference regarding Muslim attitudes towards
the Holocaust.
• Opened the door to numerous new
opportunities for joint projects and initiatives
with the Muslim and non-Muslim participants
in the visit.
Among the 19 proposals received from these
personalities after the visit, one can cite the first
that are being put into action: the suggestion
by Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Mayor of Madrid, to
co-organize a conference in autumn 2011 in
Madrid to present the Aladdin Project and
launch the "Spanish Friends of the Aladdin
Project" in the context of a conference on
the role of Spain during the Second World
War and the history of the three cultures in
that country, or the proposal by Enver Yucel,
President of Bahcesehir Istanbul University, to
host a conference in October 2011 on the role
of German Jewish academics who took refuge
in Turkey in the 1930s in the construction of
modern universities in that country.
International delegation’s
visit to Auschwitz:
What results?
• In an important breakthrough, the visit and
commemoration of Jewish victims of the
Holocaust received the public blessing of
four major figures in Sunni and Shiite worlds:
the Grand Muftis of Egypt, Bosnia and the
Caucasus, and the President of Al-Azhar
University in Cairo.
• 50 journalists were present in Auschwitz:
more than 1,000 articles in the world press
about the visit.
• Turkey: 25 editorials and op-ed articles
by participants in the visit. Sami Herman,
President of Turkish Jewish Community, in
letter to Aladdin Project President: “These
articles have had an enormous effect of
raising public awareness and educating the
Turkish public about the Holocaust.”
• Morocco: 30 newspaper articles quoting Moroccan personalities who took part in the visit.
• President Wade and Mayors of four African
cities (Libreville, Cotonou, Ouagadougou and
Bamako) issued press releases about the
visit to Auschwitz. Wade’s statement read on
Dakar radio and TV.
• Participants in the visit submitted to the
Aladdin Project 19 proposals for joint projects
and activities in their respective countries.
• Examples of post-visit initiatives: Prof.
Mohammed Dajani has started taking groups
of students from Al-Quds University on visits
to Yad Vashem. Ahmed Dizaei, President of
Erbil University, addressed a conference of
educators in Iraq about his visit.
23
Curbing Holocaust
denial in book fairs
The Aladdin Project regularly monitors the
Middle East’s biggest book fairs – those of Cairo
and Tehran – and draws up lists of anti-Semitic
and Holocaust denial books on display. Other
book fairs in the Middle East – including Beirut
and Abu-Dhabi, which are rising in importance
– also routinely display such books.
We first approached the French ministries
of Foreign Affairs and Culture with a draft
resolution calling on all Member States of the
Union for the Mediterranean to ban such books
from their book fairs.
We also presented the draft resolution to EuroMediterranean Ministers of Culture and the
Euro-Mediterranean Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
While European delegations and even some of
the Arab delegations showed an interest in the
subject, the resolution was derailed in the face
of strong opposition by Syria. We continue to
pursue this issue in contacts with governments
and international organizations.
In February 2010, on the sidelines of our
conference in Cairo, which coincided with the
24
Cairo International Book Fair, we raised the
issue with the then Deputy Minister of Culture
Hossam Nassar. We were informed that the
government had taken precautions to ensure
that such books as the Protocols or Mein Kampf
would not be displayed at the fair.
To verify, we visited the fair and discovered that,
compared with 2009, the situation had indeed
improved and only a few Islamist books that
contained virulently anti-Semitic themes and
materials were on display. But when we asked
three different stall holders for the Protocols in
Arabic, all of them were able to produce copies
of the book instantly from under the counter.
On our return to Paris, we raised the issue with
officials of the Union for the Mediterranean,
who promised to follow up. Soon afterwards,
however, the UPM became effectively paralyzed
as a result of political disagreements among
Member States.
With the changing political situation in Egypt, we
continue to focus on this issue, working in liaison
with the French government’s ambassador on
anti-Semitism issues, Francois Zimeray, and the
Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairin-Office on combating anti-Semitism, Andrew
Baker.
Educating the young:
The past, a bridge to the future
While any result-oriented strategy that seeks
to counter anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry and
conflicts of memory must strike a balance
between short-term priorities and long-term
objectives, we are in no doubt that education
and long-term changes in the perceptions of
people are the only lasting solutions to these
problems.
That’s why education, transmission of
knowledge and information in Arabic, Persian
and Turkish on Jewish religion, culture and
history and also about the centuries-long
shared history of Jews and Muslims living
together in different parts on the Muslim
world, lie at the heart of the Aladdin Project.
In 2010, we embarked on the following educational initiatives:
• Four lectures by Holocaust historians for a
total of 900 pupils studying in schools run
by the French government in Morocco and
Tunisia,
• Production of a series of history books on
Jewish-Muslim relations in 12 countries of
Africa, Asia and Europe,
• Discussions with London University for the
launch of an online MA degree on JewishMuslim relations that would be available to
students around the world.
Teaching students in the
Arab world about
the Holocaust
In February 2010, a series of lectures were given
for high school students in Tunis and Casablanca
by two historians, Serge Klarsfeld and Joel Kotek,
professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB),
and two literary experts, Anny Dayan-Rosenman
and Luba Jurgenson, Senior Lecturers at University of Paris VII (Diderot) and IV (the Sorbonne)
respectively.
This pilot experiment allowed us to analyse the
perception of high school students in these two
cities towards the Jews in general and the Holocaust in particular and identify possible methods
of training. Discussions with the teachers proved
to be of great interest and highly informative.
The objective of this pilot experiment was to
acquire an understanding of the perceptions of
Jews in general and the Holocaust in particular
among high school students in the two cities and
identify effective methods of educating students
in this age group in Morocco and Tunisia about
the Holocaust and Jewish-Muslim relations.
Admittedly Arab students studying in French
high schools in Tunis and Casablanca do not
represent all the Tunisians and Moroccans belonging to the same age group, but the exchanges
with the speakers proved to be lively and uninhibited, the young students showing a thirst for
25
“Shared Histories” authors:
1. M
orocco:
Mohammed Kenbib, Professor and
Director of Research at Mohamed V
University in Rabat
2. T
unisia:
Abdelkrim Allaghi, Professor at the
University of Tunis
3. A
lgeria:
Lucette Valensi, Professor at the EHESS
4. S
pain:
Mercedes Garcia-Arenal, Director of
Research CCHS-CSIC (Madrid)
5. E
gypt:
Gudrun Kraemer, Program Director of
Islamic Studies at the Free University
of Berlin
6. S
yria-Lebanon:
Tarif al-Khalidi, Professor at American
University of Beirut (tbc)
7. Israel-Palestine:
Amnon Cohen, Professor Emeritus at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and Mohammed Dajani Daoudi,
Professor at the University of Al-Quds
8. Iraq:
Orit Bashkin, professor
at the University of Chicago
9. Y
emen:
Yossi Tobi, Professor Emeritus
at the University of Haifa
10. T
urkey:
Gilles Veinstein, Professor
at College de France
11. I ran-Afghanistan:
Darioush Shayegan, philosopher
and author (Iran)
12. I ndia-Pakistan:
26
Yulia Egorova, lecturer,
University of Durham
information. Students’ reactions to the lectures in
both cities were broadly similar. Many showed a
genuine curiosity about Holocaust history, especially when it touched their own country as was
the case with the short-lived Nazi occupation of
Tunisia and Vichy government pressures on the
Moroccan ruler, Mohammed V. A short film by
William Karel about Primo Levi was shown to
complement the lectures.
In the questions and answers sessions that followed, many students asked questions about
the Holocaust, the relations between Jews and
Muslims and the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the
questions showed the students’ interest in these
issues, they also revealed an almost total lack
of knowledge of historical facts concerning that
period of history. In discussions with the panelists
after the lectures, teachers pointed out that the
curricula included nothing about the centurieslong history of Jewish communities in these two
countries.
Collection of 12 books
on the history of Jews
in Muslim lands
As mentioned before, many intellectuals and
teachers we met in different Muslim countries
underlined the need for educational books
on the history of Jewish communities in these
countries. In response, we launched the project
“Shared Histories” in 2010 with the objective of
producing a collection of books on the history of
Jewish communities in 12 countries. The books
will be in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, English and
French.
The books, primarily aimed at high school
teachers and, more generally, a broad reading
public, will be written in simple style. The
collection will be available in digital form from the
Aladdin Online Library and will be co-published
in paperback with French publishers and editors
recognized in the Arab-Muslim world, to ensure
the widest possible distribution. The books are
due to be published in 2012 and 2013.
A scientific committee composed of eminent
historians and experts, chaired by Professor
Abdou Filali-Ansary, oversees the production of
this collection. Series director is historian Michel
Abitbol. Committee members include:
• Lucette Valensi, historian, director of education
emeritus, EHESS
• Gilles Veinstein, professor of Ottoman and
Turkish History at the College de France
• Kazdaghli Habib, Professor of Contemporary
History, University of Tunis-Manouba
• Tudor Parfitt, professor of Modern Jewish
Studies, SOAS, University of London
• Darioush Shayegan, Iranian philosopher and
writer
• Ilber Ortayli, historian, President of the Topkapi
Museum in Istanbul
As part of our education strategy, the production
of these books will go hand in hand with our
efforts to work with educational authorities
in countries where large Jewish communities
once existed (or continue to exist) to study
the modalities of including the history of these
communities in school curriculum. The French
government has already indicated its willingness
to work with us on this project, for which we
will also be seeking UNESCO’s partnership
as the UN agency entrusted with the task of
implementing General Assembly Resolution A/
Res./53/243 on the culture of peace education.
Online degree from London
University on Jewish-Muslim
relations
To encourage the younger generations in the
Arab world, in Israel, in Iran, in Turkey and
elsewhere, to learn more about the long history
of Jewish-Muslim relations, the Aladdin Project
entered discussions with leaders of the London
University’s School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS) to start an online Master of Arts
degree course on the history of Jewish-Muslim
relations.
The course is particularly designed for students
of political and social sciences, but suitable also for
professionals whose work involves or is affected
by intercultural and Jewish-Muslim relations
or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Following initial
discussions, Aladdin Project president AnneMarie Revcolevschi; Prof. Abdou Filali-Ansary,
president of our Academic Committee, and
Executive Director Abe Radkin held meetings in
London in November 2010 with SOAS Director
Prof. Paul Webley and Prof.Tudor Parfitt to launch
this course and ultimately set up an Aladdin
Centre for Jewish-Muslim Studies. The Dean, Dr.
Anne Pauwels, is leading the preparatory stages
and feasibility studies of the project.
The choice of SOAS for the program was based
on its significant experience with and expertise in
the development of distance learning programs,
as well as the various disciplines of Jewish studies
and Islamic studies.
The resolution encourages Member States to
educate the younger generations about the
ethnic and religious minorities in their respective
countries. Despite the current turmoil in parts
of the Arab world, we hope to be able, in
coordination with the educational authorities of
these countries, to make a contribution over the
next few years to the introduction of the history
of these Jewish minorities in the curricula and
complement it with teacher training courses.
27
Media monitoring: Exposing purveyors
of hate, encouraging voices of reason
We continue on a regular basis our monitoring
of the Arabic and Persian-language media to
focus attention not only on examples of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, but also highlight
articles or reports that seek to encourage better relations and understanding among Muslims
and Jews. We give priority to the translation of
articles and statements that have policy consequences or exert an influence on a large section
of the population, and we try to take appropriate action where possible. Here are examples
of our monitoring and consequent actions in
2010:
• David de Rothschild, President of the French
Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and
President of the Aladdin Project Fund, sent
a letter to Education Minister of the UAE
through Alain Azouaou, Ambassador of France
to the UAE, following an announcement in
January 2010 in the daily Al-Ittihad that the
government of UAE had formally banned the
use of Elie Wiesel’s Night in private schools.
The Embassy of France in Abu Dhabi continues to follow up the case with the objective
of organizing, in 2011, a conference for Elie
Wiesel in Abu-Dhabi in partnership with the
Aladdin Project.
• In April 2010, following the publication of an
advertisement on the website of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt for an exhibition
entitled "Palestinian Holocaust" in a theatre
in Cairo, we contacted the Egyptian Ambassador in Paris and the Egyptian Ministry of
28
Culture, pointing out that the exhibition
made an unacceptable amalgam between the
Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Deputy Minister of Culture of Egypt subsequently informed us that his government
refused to authorize the exhibition and that it
did not take place.
• On December 12, 2010, Jordanian journalist
Riad Mansour "revealed" in the Arabic daily
Ad-Dustour that some private schools in
Jordan were using a history textbook which
contained a chapter on The Diary of Anne
Frank and the history of the Holocaust. The
case immediately became political and the
government banned the use of this book in
schools. We alerted the Anne Frank Foundation and sought the intervention of Jordan's
Ambassador in Paris, Ms. Dina Kawar, and the
Ambassador of France to Amman, Ms. Corinne Breuzé.
• After compiling a detailed list of more than
160 anti-Semitic books on display at Tehran International Book Fair in May 2010, we sent the
list to the United Nations Secretary General
and other international organizations and our
press release was covered in the American,
European and Israeli press.
Finding partners: development of our network
The year 2010 was a year of consolidation of our
network and establishment of durable working
relationships with universities, academic centres
and NGOs that share our interests and goals.The
conferences in the ten cities of the Middle East
and North Africa provided a unique opportunity
to develop our ties with a large spectrum of
intellectuals, academics, human and civil rights
activists and NGOs in each country. We also
established formal ties with supranational
institutions such as the International Task Force
for Holocaust Education and the Anna Lindh
Foundation and participated in their conferences
and forums.
Holocaust Education
International Task Force (ITF):
The Aladdin Project became a member of the
"Task Force for International Cooperation on
Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research" (ITF) in 2010. Abe Radkin represented
the Aladdin Project at the ITF conference in
Jerusalem in June 2010. ITF is an intergovernmental body whose purpose is to place political and social leaders' support behind the
need for Holocaust education, remembrance,
and research both nationally and internationally.
The Task Force currently has 28 Member States.
The Aladdin Project seeks to encourage governments in the Arab and Muslim world to join the
ITF, where Turkey currently has observer status.
Seminar on Holocaust education
in Brussels:
The European Centre for the Study of Racism
(CEESAG), a Brussels-based organization,
invited representatives of the Aladdin Project to
present their experiences in raising Holocaust
awareness in non-Western populations at a
seminar entitled, “Challenges of Holocaust
education.” The meeting took place at the
Belgian Parliament on March 26, 2010.
European Muslims' Perceptions
of the Holocaust:
Organized by the French research institute
CNRS and the Berlin-based International Institute for Education and Research on Anti-Semitism, the two-day international conference in
Paris focused on how Muslims in Europe view
the Holocaust and reviewed approaches to
Holocaust education for European Muslims. Jean
Mouttapa, chairman of the Book Committee,
described how the lessons drawn from the activities of the Aladdin Project could be applied to
the European context to familiarize young Muslims in Europe with the history of the Holocaust.
Intercultural dialogue
Anna Lindh Forum:
The forum brought together over 500 representatives of NGOs and civil society from 43
countries in Barcelona in March 2010 to discuss and develop actions to promote dialogue,
mutual understanding and peace.The organizers
of the forum, a gathering of civil society actors
to promote intercultural action throughout the
Mediterranean region, included the presentation of the Aladdin Project in the program. Wellknown French journalist Caroline Fourest, who
chaired the workshop on intercultural dialogue,
praised the Aladdin Project before giving the
29
floor to the representative of the organization,
Abe Radkin, to present the project and answer
the questions of participants from Jordan, Egypt,
UAE, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia. Many of them
asked to be kept informed of the activities of
the Aladdin Project.
Meeting at UNESCO:
The Aladdin Project was presented in September to a delegation of Israeli and Palestinian
teenagers, aged 15 to 18, from Ramallah, Gaza,
Lod, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, who were visiting
Paris at the invitation of the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs to present their peace plan
at UNESCO. The visit was initiated by Valerie
Hoffenberg, France’s special representative for
the economic and cultural dimensions of the
Middle East peace process, and an Israeli NGO,
"Kids Creating Peace". The teenagers and their
teachers showed keen interest and the young
Palestinians took copies of the Diary of Anne
Frank in Arabic to take home.
Meeting in Paris City Hall:
A meeting in September 2010 at Paris City Hall,
chaired by First Deputy Mayor of Paris Anne
Hidalgo, discussed the possible activities that the
Aladdin Project could undertake to promote
intercultural ties in France. Participants included
Deputy Mayor of Nice Martine Ouaknine,
Karim El Karaoui, Anny Dayan Rosenman, all
three members of the Aladdin Project’s board
of directors, several officials of the City Council,
and representatives of the Jewish and Muslim
communities. It was decided to present the
Aladdin Project to a meeting of French mayors
and elected local officials in 2011 and discuss
with them the type of educational and cultural
initiatives that would be most productive in their
cities and how the Aladdin Project could contribute to the process.
Universities
University of Istanbul:
At a meeting between Enver Yucel, president of
the University of Bahcesehir in Istanbul, Cengiz
Aktar, chairman of the Department of EU rela-
30
tions and Yael Habif, director of international relations and representatives of the Aladdin Project in January 2010, the university proposed a
partnership with the Aladdin Project in the area
of education, conference organization and joint
academic activities. Bahcesehir University has
been involved in the Aladdin Project’s ongoing
discussions with the Turkish authorities to introduce Holocaust education and include books
on the history of the Turkish Jewish community
in the school curriculum. As part of this cooperation, the Aladdin Project and the University of
Bahcesehir, in partnership with Princeton University and UNESCO, will organize together an
international conference in 2011 on the role of
Jewish German and Austrian scholars, who took
refuge in Turkey in the 1930s and contributed
to the creation of the modern university system
in the country.
University of Tunis:
We have established a working relationship with
Professor Habib Kazdaghli, head of “History and
Memory” research group at the University of Tunis-Manouba. The group is part of the Research
Laboratory for Regions and Heritage Resources,
led by Professor Abdelhamid Larguèche. The
cooperation focuses on the teaching of the history of the Jewish community in Tunisia, including the brief period of Nazi occupation of the
country during the Second World War.
University of London:
Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and Professor Abdou
Filali-Ansary presented the Aladdin Project in
the "School of Oriental and African Studies'
(SOAS), University of London in November
2010. The University of London hosted the first
conference on the Aladdin Project in Great
Britain, chaired by Prof. Tudor Parfitt. Sydney
Assor, head of the Moroccan Jewish community
of Britain, spoke about Morocco’s support for
the Aladdin Project, while Dr. Richard Stone, a
veteran of interfaith dialogue in Britain, said he
hoped to see the organization become more
active in the UK and work with existing structures in their efforts to promote intercultural
dialogue.
31
LOOKING AHEAD
Projects underway in 2011
The following projects are scheduled to be implemented in the second half of 2011
and complement those already described in previous pages.
The Muslim Righteous
Three events in 2011 celebrate the role of Muslims who helped the Jews during the Holocaust:
a premiere in Cannes in May for “The Turkish
Passport”, the first Holocaust-related film produced in a Muslim country. It describes the littleknown story of certain Turkish diplomats in Nazi-occupied France who saved several hundred
Jews of Turkish origin from deportation to the
death camps. A screening of the film will also be
organized in Paris in autumn in cooperation with
the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the presence of ministers, ambassadors, survivors, sons
and daughters of the Turkish diplomats.The third
event will be a conference in Rabat about Arab
rulers and individuals who refused to cooperate
with the Vichy regime or the German occupiers
against Moroccan and Tunisian Jews.
Jewish academics’
contribution to modern
education in Turkey
University of Istanbul Bahcesehir, the Aladdin
Project, Princeton University and UNESCO
will be partners in the organization of a conference in Istanbul in 2011 that will highlight the
role of German and Austrian scholars of Jewish
faith who took refuge in Turkey in the 1930s
and 1940s and founded the modern system of
higher education in the country.
34
Lanzmann’s Shoah to be
broadcast by Turkey’s
national television
The Aladdin Project and its Turkish partners will
organize a special event in Ankara to mark the
broadcast of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah by the
public television channel, TRT.
Launch of Aladdin Library’s
new books
A conference at the National Library of France
will mark the launch of the paperback edition
of 10 new books in Arabic and Persian on the
Holocaust. Panelists will include authors of the
books, as well as prominent literary figures from
the Arab world and Iran and Arab editors. The
books will also be launched at the Frankfurt
International Book Fair in October.
“Shared Histories”:
a conference in Nice
At the invitation of the Municipal Council of
Nice, a joint meeting of the Board of Directors
of the Aladdin Project and the city council will
take place in November under the joint chairmanship of Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and the
Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosy. On this occasion, the city of Nice, president of Euromed
Cities Network, will host a conference about
“Shared Histories,” the collection of books being
produced by the Aladdin Project about JewishMuslim histories in 12 countries of North Africa,
the Middle East and Asia.
Spain: Intercultural
relations from Andalusia
and Inquisition
to the Holocaust
In partnership with the City of Madrid and the
Casa Sefard, a conference will be organized in
Madrid where a panel of historians will discuss
two topics: “The Holocaust and Spain” and
“Spain: A historical model for coexistence?” On
this occasion, the Spanish Friends of the Aladdin
Project will also be launched.
Conference in Brussels:
“Can education bridge the
divide between Jews and
Muslims in Europe?
The Aladdin Project’s
experience”
A conference at the Francophone Parliament of
Brussels in December will see the formal launch
of the Belgian Friends of the Aladdin Project, as
well as a conference on this subject: “Can education bridge the divide between Muslims and
non-Muslims in Europe: the Aladdin Project’s experience”. A second conference will take place
at the European Parliament on the presence of
Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic books in the
book fairs of Mediterranean countries.
35
Governance
Staff
The Aladdin Project staff is composed of three
permanent members:
• Abe Radkin, Executive Director
• Diana Tey, responsible for websites, translations,
publications and administrative affairs
• Eva Bertoin, program officer
• Esther Amar, Cécile Gauzi and Colette Loeb
participate in the implementation of certain
projects as volunteers.
• For organizing the trip to Auschwitz, the
Aladdin Project strengthened its staff by
employing part-time, from October 2010 to
January 2011, Myriam Allouche and Mohamed
Kamli, an international law student.
Executive Committee
President: Anne-Marie Revcolevschi
Vice President: Serge Klarsfeld
Treasurer: Roch Olivier Maistre
Secretary General: Fatiha Benatsou
Members: Jacques Andréani, André Azoulay
Ex officio members (chair of committees):
Jean Mouttapa (Book Committee), Abdou FilaliAnsary (Academic Committee), Anne Hidalgo
(Coexistence Committee), René-Samuel Sirat
and Aly El Samman (Interfaith Committee).
> In 2010, the Executive Committee met on four
occasions.
36
Board of Directors
• Jacques Andreani, former ambassador of
France to Cairo, Rome and Washington, DC
• André Azoulay, adviser to the King of Morocco,
president of Anna Lindh Foundation
• Fatiha Benatsou, Prefect for equal opportunities
in Val d'Oise
• Marie-Hélène Bérard, President of MHB SA
• Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist, essayist, and
women's rights activist
• Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer at the
University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot
• Hakim El Karoui, founder and President of
the Twenty-First Century Club, a director at
Rothschild Bank
• Aly El Samman, president of the International
Union for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue
and Peace Education, Egypt
• Abdou Filali-Ansary, philosopherand Islamic
scholar, Morocco
• Nilüfer Gole, Turkish anthropologist, director
of research at EHESS
• Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris
• Serge Klarsfeld, lawyer and writer, president
of the Association of Sons and Daughters of
Jews Deported from France
• Julia Kristeva, psychoanalyst and theorist of language and semiotics, chair of the Faculty of Languages and Literature at the University of Paris VII
• Claude Lanzmann, writer and filmmaker
• Roch-Olivier Maistre, first Attorney-General
at the Court of Auditors
• Jean Mouttapa, director of Living Spiritualities
Collection, Albin Michel Publishers
• Ndioro Ndiaye, minister in several governments in Senegal,
• Martine Ouaknine, lawyer, Deputy Mayor of Nice
• Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the
Aladdin Project
• René-Samuel Sirat, former Chief Rabbi of France
> During this period, the board of directors met on
two occasions.
Committees
Committees are responsible for studying project
proposals in their area of expertise. If approved
by the committee, the project is then sent to
the Board for final evaluation and adoption.
Committees oversee the work of project
directors by evaluating their progress reports.
During 2010, the composition of the existing
committees was enlarged and new committees
were formed.
Committee on Conscience
The Committee on Conscience is the
international advisory board of the Aladdin
Project. The committee’s membership is being
enlarged to include intellectual, political, social
and academic figures from around the world,
reflecting a broad diversity of cultural and
religious backgrounds. The current list includes
only the personalities from the Muslim world
who have accepted to join the committee.
• Chair: Jacques Andréani, Ambassador of France
• Khrouz Driss, Director of the National Library
of Morocco
• Yasar Yakis, former Foreign Minister, Turkey
• Bakhtiar Amin, former Minister of Human
Rights, Iraq
• Ilber Ortayli, president of the Topkapi Museum,
Turkey
• Sari Nusaybah, president of Al Quds University
• Enver Yucel, president of Bahcesehir Istanbul
University, Turkey
• Iyad Allawi, former Prime Minister of Iraq
• Salah Stétié, poet and former diplomat, Lebanon
• Daryoush Shayegan, philosopher and writer, Iran
• Doudou Diene, former UN special rapporteur
on contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance,
Senegal
• Tarek Heggy, Egyptian writer and thinker
Book Committee
• Chair: Jean Mouttapa, Director of Spirituality
Collection, Albin Michel Publishers
• Joseph Maila, professor of political sociology,
expert on Islam and the Middle East, former
Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris
• Djenane Kareh Tager, writer and journalist, Lebanon
• Jean-François Colosimo, president, National Book
Centre (CNL), philosopher, theologian and editor
• Henry Rousso, historian, research director at CNRS
• Joel Kotek, historian, professor at the Free
University of Brussels
• Rachid Benzine, expert on Islam, author,
lecturer at the Institute for Political Studies in
Aix-en-Provence
Interfaith Committee
• Chairs: Dr. Aly El Samman, President of the
International Union for Jewish-Christian-Muslim
Dialogue and Peace Education, Chief Rabbi
Rene-Samuel Sirat,
• Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia
• Dr Abduljalil Sajid, spiritual leader of the
Pakistani community in Britain
• René Gutman, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, France
• Father Patrick Desbois, president of the
Association Yahad Unum, France
• Alexander Sinyakov, rector of the Russian
Orthodox seminary in France
• Tareq Oubrou, rector of the Mosque of
Bordeaux, President of the Association of
Imams of France
Academic Committee
• Chair:
Professor
Abdou
Filali-Ansary,
philosopher, Morocco
• Julia Kristeva, philosopher, chair of the Faculty of
Languages and Literature at the University of ParisVII
• Nilüfer Gole, Turkish anthropologist, director of
research at the EHESS
• Anny Dayan-Rosenman, Senior Lecturer
(Literature) at the University of Paris-VII
• Cengiz Aktar, political scientist and academic,
Turkey
• Ahmed Anwar Dezaye, president of the
University of Salahaddin, Erbil, Iraq
• Mohammed Tozy, political scientist and
academic, Morocco
• Adel Al-Kayar, university professor, Iraq
• Mohammed Dajani, president of Wasatia
Movement, professor at Al-Quds University
• Jamaa Baida, professor at the University of
Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco
37
"Living together" Committee
• Chair: Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris
• Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer at
University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot
• Hakim El Karoui, director at Rothschild Bank
• Martine Ouaknine, Deputy Mayor of Nice
• Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist, essayist, and
women’s rights activist
• Rafik Hassani, National Secretary in charge of
international relations of the RCD, Algeria
• Fouzi Bettache, Secretary General of MOSAIC
Federation, France
"Friends of the Aladdin
Project" in different
countries
A number of affiliate groups called "Friends of
the Aladdin Project" are being formed in several
countries, including Belgium, Turkey, Spain, Britain
and the United States, and the process of forming
these groups is already underway.
• Belgium: Hubert Benkoski created in
Brussels the Belgian Friends of the Aladdin
Project. Several Jewish, Muslim and Christian
personalities have already joined the
committee. The committee will be working
with us to organize a conference at the Belgian
Parliament and the European Parliament in
December 2011.
• Turkey: Prof. Cengiz Aktar is the coordinator
of the Friends of the Aladdin Project in Turkey
and works closely with Nilüfer Göle, one of
our Board members. Other members of the
committee include Prof. Ilber Ortayli, president
of Topkapi Museum, influential editorialist Ali
Bayramoglu and Naim Guleryuz, president
of the Jewish Museum of Istanbul, filmmaker
Gunes Celikcan and academic Yael Habif. The
committee was actively involved in mobilizing
Turkish personalities and influential columnists
to take part in the visit to Auschwitz and
recount their experience in the Turkish media.
• Spain: Henar Corbi, former member of the
Spanish Parliament and currently a leader of
38
Casa Sefarad, has started work on the creation
of the “Spanish Friends of the Aladdin Project”.
She has already received commitments from
several personalities, including the Mayor of
Madrid and former foreign minister, Miguel
Moratinos. The committee will be working
with us to organize a conference in Madrid in
November 2011.
• Britain: Michelle Huberman, a founder of the
Association of Jews from the Middle East and
North Africa in London, is working to create
the “Friends of the Aladdin Project in Britain”.
• United States: Professor Elie Wiesel has
agreed to be president of the "American
Friends of the Aladdin Project" and several
other personalities, including Howard
Berman, chairman of the Democratic
Committee on Foreign Affairs of Congress,
former Congressman John Tanner, and Esther
Coopersmith, Goodwill Ambassador of
UNESCO, have agreed in principle to join the
committee, which is being formed with the
help of the French embassy in Washington, DC.
Financial statements
From September 2009 to December 2010, funding for the Aladdin Project came from private
Foundations in France and abroad, public institutions in France and individual donors.The Aladdin
Project Fund, an endowment fund, was set up under a recent French legislation with the aim
of finding international financial support primarily for the activities of the Aladdin Project. Its
president, David de Rothschild, has defined the fundraising policy and priorities and addressed
letters to different potential donors. The Aladdin Project’s annual reports and accounts are
certified by Cabinet Mazars (Mazars Group), one of France’s leading independent audits.
Notes:
1. A
s the Aladdin Project Association began its operations in September 2009, the financial report
was prepared and audited for the last quarter of 2009 and the year 2010 as a whole.
2. The assets accumulated by the end of 2010 were largely allocated to two projects (the visit to
Auschwitz and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah), and the major expenditures for these two projects
were incurred in the first quarter of 2011.
Financial Data: 2009 (last quarter) and 2010
- All amounts in Euro Fondation
Rothschild (Institut
Alain de Rothschild)
8%
Total SA
3%
French Ministry of
Defense
3%
Private
donors
9%
Edomnd J. Safra
Philanthropic
Foundation
32%
Grants and Donations
Fondation pour la
Mémoire de la
Shoah
45%
39
General
administration
19%
Board members'
travels
1%
Fundraising
5%
Expenditures
Projects
75%
Collection of 12
books on "Shared
Histories"
6%
Online degree
course on JewishMuslim relations
1%
Translation
of 10 new books
25%
Development of
multilingual website
8%
Shoah of Claude
Lanzmann
11%
Conferences
in 10 cities
27%
Preparation
of visit
to Auschwitz
22%
Project Expenditures
Overall Results: Last quarter of 2009 + 2010
40
Total Income
475 010
Total Expenditures
275 591
Net assets on December 31, 2010
199 418
Recognition
We express our gratitude to the donors and institutional partners, whose contribution and
partnership made our work possible:
Donors
Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah
Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation
Rothschild Foundation (Institut Alain de Rothschild)
Ministry of Defense (France), Directorate of Memory, Heritage and Archives
TOTAL SA
Institutional partners
UNESCO
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, France
Mémorial de la Shoah
Paris City Hall
University of Istanbul Bahcesehir
National Library of Morocco
Private donors
David de Rothschild
Sabrina Azoulay
Toutou-Baila Diagne
David Revcolevschi
41
List of Annexes
42
Annex A
Members of the International Delegation that visited Auschwitz
on February 1, 2011
Annex B
Message of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco to the organizers
of the visit of the international delegation to Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Annex C
Remarks by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Chairman of the Islamic
Conference Organization, at the press conference at the City Hall of Paris,
January 31, 2011
Annex D
Speech by Samuel Pisar
in the name of Holocaust survivors and martyrs,
Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Annex E
Speech by Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia,
at the International Monument, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Annex F
Remarks by Ms Irina Bokova,
Director-General of UNESCO,
at the press conference at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011
Annex G
Remarks by Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris,
at the press conference at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011
Annex H
Speech by Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro,
Deputy Director General of the United Nations, Auschwitz, February 1,
2011
Annex I
Speech by Mr. Gerhard Schröder,
Former Chancellor of Germany,
Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Annex J
Message of Dr. Ali Goma’a, Grand Mufti of Egypt,
to the Aladdin Project on the occasion
of the visit to Auschwitz
43
Annex A
Members of the International Delegation
that visited Auschwitz on February 1, 2011
Survivors of the Holocaust
Mr. Raphael Esrail, France
Ms. Ida Grinspan, France
Ms. Ginette Kolinka, France
Ms. Levy Yvette, France
Mr. Samuel Pisar, France
Mr. Rosenman Izio, France
Mr. Roth Nicolas, France
Mr. Roman Mr Frist, Poland
Mr. Marian Turski, Poland
In the presence of
Mr. Stjepan Mesic, former President of the Republic of Croatia
Mr. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, former President of
the Republic of Mauritania
Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, former German Chancellor
Representatives of Heads of States and
Governments
Prof. Roman Kuzniar, senior advisor to the President of the Republic for foreign policy, representing Mr. Bronislaw Komorowski, President of the
Republic of Poland;
H.E. François Zimeray, Ambassador for Human
Rights, representing Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic;
H.E. Aziza Bennani, Ambassador, representing
H.M. King Mohammed VI of Morocco;
H.E.Yasar Yakis, former Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Chairman of the Committee for harmonization
of relations with the European Union at the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey, representing
Mr. Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of
Turkey;
H.E. Bakhtiar Amin, former Minister, representing
President Jalal Talabani of Iraq;
H.E. Egemen Bagis, Minister in charge of Euro-
44
pean Affairs and Chief Negotiator with the EU,
representing Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime
Minister of the Republic of Turkey;
H.E. Eleonora Mitrofanova, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation,
President of the Executive Board of UNESCO,
representing the Government of the Russian
Federation;
H.E. David Killion, Ambassador, Permanent
Delegate of USA to UNESCO, representing the
Government of the United States of America;
Lord Greville Janner, Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, representing the United
Kingdom;
H.E. Dina Kawar, Ambassador, representing the
Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan
Mr. Alon Simhayoff, representing H.E. Zvi RavNer, Israeli Ambassador to Poland (absent from
Poland)
H.E. Maciej Kozłowski, Ambassador-at-Large for
Polish-Jewish relations, representing the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Poland
Mr. Stanisław Kracik, Prefect of the region of
Krakow, Poland
Religious figures
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of
Krakow, Poland
Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, President of the
International Council of Yad Vashem, a survivor
of the Holocaust, Israel
Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia
Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris,
France
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon,
France
Mr. Gilles Bernheim, Chief Rabbi of France
Mr. Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland
Sheikh Khamis Abda, President of imams in the
Palestinian territories
Dr. Abduljalil Sajid, spiritual leader of the Pakistani
Muslim community in Great Britain
Mr. René Gutman, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg,
France
Father Patrick Desbois, President of Yahad Unum
Association, France
Mr. Alexander Sinyakov, Rector of the Russian
Orthodox seminary in France, director of ecumenical relations in the Diocese of Chersonese,
Patriarchate of Moscow
Professor Arie Ben-Nun
Mr. Tareq Oubrou, Rector of the Mosque of
Bordeaux, President of the Association of Imams
of France
Mr. Assani Fassassi, Secretary General of the
French Federation of Islamic Associations of
Africa, the Comoros and the Caribbean
Mr.Yehoshua Ellis, rabbi of the Jewish community
in Katowice, Poland
The Aladdin Project
Ms. Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the
Aladdin Project
Mr. David de Rothschild, Chairman of the Aladdin Fund
Mr. Jacques Andréani, Ambassador of France
Mr. André Azoulay, Advisor to the King of
Morocco, President of Anna-Lindh Foundation
Ms. Marie-Hélène Bérard, President of MHB
Ms. Anny Dayan-Rosenman, senior lecturer at
the University of Paris VII
Mr Eric de Rothschild, President of Shoah
Memorial
Mr. Aly Elsamman, Chairman of the Committee
for Interreligious Dialogue, Egypt
Ms. Ndioro Ndiaye, former Minister of Women,
President of the Alliance for Migration, Leadership and Development, Senegal
Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, philosopher,
Morocco
Ms. Nilufer Gole, anthropologist, director of
research at EHESS, Turkey
Mr. Claude Lanzmann, director and filmmaker,
France
Mr. Roch-Olivier Maistre, First Advocate General
at the Court of Auditors, France
Jean Mouttapa, director of the Spirituality Live
Series Albin Michel
Mr. Abe Radkin, Executive Director of Aladdin
Project
Political, intellectual and academic
personalities
Prof. Ilber Ortaylı, President of the Topkapi
Museum, Turkey
Mr. Driss El Yazami, Chairman of the Moroccan
community abroad, Morocco
Ms. Catherine Colonna, former minister, France
Dr. Richard Prasquier, President of CRIF
Mr. Pierre Besnainou, President of the United
Jewish Social Fund, France
Mr. Anis Al Qaq, former Secretary of State,
Palestine
Mr. Ofer Bronchtein, former advisor to Yitzhak
Rabin, president of the International Forum for
Peace and Reconciliation in the Middle East,
Israel
Mr. Stanisław Bisztyga, Senator of Krakow, Poland
Mr. Piotr Cywinski, Director of the Museum of
Auschwitz, Poland
Mr. Kazdaghli Habib, historian, Tunisia
Mr. Sari Nusaybah, President of Al Quds University, Palestine
Mr. Rafik Hassani, Member of Parliament, National Secretary in charge of international relations
of RCD, Algeria
Mr. Enver Yucel, president of Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, Turkey
Mr. Anwar Ahmed Amin, President of the University of Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq
Ms. Corinne Evens, Belgium
Mr. Adel Al-Kayar, University Professor, Iraq
Mr. Driss Khrouz, Director of the National
Library of Morocco
Mr. A. B.Yehoshua, writer, Israel
Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal (ret.) , MD, Former
Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Asst
Secretary for Health, USA
Professor Paweł Machcewicz, Director of the
Museum of World War II, Warsaw, Poland
Mr. Faruk Kaymakci, diplomatic adviser to the
Minister in charge of relations with the European
Union, Turkey
Ms. Bariza Khiari, Senator, France
45
Mr. Michel Abitbol, historian, Israel
Mr. Mohammed Dajani, President of the Wasatia
Movement, professor at Al Quds University,
Palestine
Mr. Rachid Arhab, member of the Supreme
Audiovisual Council, France
Mr. Fouzi Bettache, Secretary General of the
MOSAIC Federation, France
Mr. Simon Xavier Guerrand-Hermes, President
of "Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace”
Mr. Mohammed Tozy, political scientist and academic, Morocco
Ms. Amira Mostafa, Director of "Arab World
Center for Democratic Development, Jordan
Mr. Tudor Parfitt, a professor at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, United Kingdom
Claude Nataf, President of the Historical Society
of Jews from Tunisia
Mr. Jamaa Baida, professor at the University of
Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco
Mr. Abdellatif Laâbi, writer, Morocco
Mr. Faouzi Skali, Director of the Festival of Fez,
Morocco
Mrs. Binnaz Toprak, professor of political science,
Turkey
Mr. Sedat Ergin, columnist for the newspaper
Hurriet, Turkey
Mr. Hasan Cemal, columnist, Turkey
Mr. Ali Bayramoglu, sociologist and writer, Turkey
Mr. Cengiz Aktar, political scientist and columnist,
Turkey
Mr. Izak Kolman, representative of the Jewish
community in Turkey
Ms. Gabrielle Rochmann, Deputy Director, Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, France
Mr. Cemal Usak, Vice-President of the Union of
Journalists and Writers, Turkey
Mr. Fehmi Koru, columnist, Turkey
Ms.Yael Habif, Director of International Relations,
University of Bahcesehir Istanbul, Turkey
Mr. Gunes Celikcan, filmmaker, Turkey
Mayors
Mr. Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris, France
Mr. Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakow, Poland
Mr. Nicephore Soglo, Mayor of Cotonou, former
President of the Republic, Benin
46
Mr. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Mayor of Madrid,
Spain
Mr. Adama Sangare, Mayor of Bamako, Mali
Mr. Sorin Oprescu, Mayor of Bucharest, Romania
Mr. Fathallah Oualalou, Mayor of Rabat, Morocco
Mr. Nihad Qoja, Mayor of Erbil, Iraq
Mr. Jean-François Ntoutoume-Emane, Mayor of
Libreville, Gabon
Mr. Simon Compaore, Mayor of Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso
Mr. Alija Behmen, Mayor of Sarajevo, Bosnia
Mr. Mohamed Sajid, Mayor of Casablanca,
Morocco
Mr. Abdelhamid Chabat, Mayor of Fez, Morocco
Mr. Hilal Ahmed, mayor of Meknes, Morocco
Mr. Janusz Marszalek, Mayor of Oswiecim, Poland
Mrs Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris,
France
Pierre Schapira, Deputy Mayor of Paris, France
Martine Ouaknine, Deputy Mayor of Nice,
France
International Organizations
Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General
of the United Nations, special envoy of Mr. Ban
Ki-moon
Ms. Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO
Mr. Mevlut Çavuşoğlu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Mr. Francesco Bandarin, Deputy Director General for Culture, Director of the World Heritage
Centre
Mr Eric Falt, Director-General for External Relations and Public Information, UNESCO
Mr. Alain Husson-Dumoutier, Artist for Peace,
painter and sculptor of UNESCO
Ms. Hedva Ser, Artist for Peace, Vice-President
and founder of the International Museum of
Women Artists
Ambassadors and diplomats
H.E. Esther Coopersmith, UNESCO Goodwill
Ambassador, USA
H.E. Almir Sahovic, Ambassador of BosniaHerzegovina to France
H.E. Resit Uman, Ambassador of Turkey to
Poland
H.E. Rama Yade, Ambassador and Permanent
Delegate of France to UNESCO
H.E. Davidson L. Hepburn, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the Bahamas to UNESCO,
President of the 35th session of the General
Conference of UNESCO
H.E. Krzysztof Kocel, Ambassador and Permanent
Delegate of Poland to UNESCO
H.E. Miguel Angel Estrella, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Argentina to UNESCO
H.E. Odette Yao Yao, Ambassador, Permanent
Delegate of Ivory Coast to UNESCO
H.E. Martina Nibbeling-Wrießnig, Ambassador,
Permanent Delegate of Germany to UNESCO
H.E. Alexander Savov, Ambassador, Permanent
Delegate of Bulgaria to UNESCO
Mr. Alexis Chahtahtinsky, Consul General of
France in Krakow
Heinz Peters, Consul General of Germany in
Krakow
Mr. Allen S. Greenberg, Consul General of the
United States in Krakow
47
Annex B
Message of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco to the
organizers of the visit of the international delegation
to Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
It is with great pleasure that I received your kind invitation to participate in the commemoration of
Holocaust victims planned on February 1, 2011, in the framework of the “Aladdin Project.”
I would like to commend, on this occasion, the hard work of members of the Aladdin Project to
create opportunities for a fruitful dialogue based on mutual respect and aimed at combating misinformation, stereotypes and Holocaust denial, ferment of extremism that stifles the voice of reason
and alters the spirit of moderation.
Setting up an online library that brings together for the first time in Arabic and Persian books on
the history of the Holocaust sets the stage for a much-needed work of memory and resonates like
a call to collective conscience.
It was in this spirit of bringing people together that I sent last year a message to participants at the
launch conference of the Aladdin Project, reiterating my frank and unequivocal support for the
values of human dignity. I was the first Sovereign in the Arab world to share my reading of the duty
of remembrance that the Holocaust imposes upon us, that of a wound to the collective memory,
which we know is engraved in one of the most painful chapters in the collective history of mankind.
I would like to assure you of my firm commitment and determination to advocate for the noble
ideals promoted by your project and my full support for initiatives being launched within this framework, including an upcoming conference in Rabat with the theme "The Muslim Righteous.”
It is with great interest that I wish your present undertaking every success.
The organization of the visit by High Personalities to a place that will forever be remembered as a
symbol of intolerance and anti-Semitism will, without doubt, enable the younger generations to carry
out an essential work of remembrance.
In this regard, I have designated Madam Ambassador Aziza Bennani, Permanent Delegate to
UNESCO, to represent me in this important event.
48
Annex C
Remarks by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal,
Chairman of the Islamic Conference Organization,
at the press conference at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011
You were not surprised at the statement I made at UNESCO in 2009 at the launch of the Aladdin
Project to give my full support to this initiative. I am committed to this cause first by human sensitivity and also because I am a liberal, that is, someone who believes in the fundamental values of
human beings.
The anti-Jewish racism is well-known and the Final Solution was put into action. This is what the
Nazis wanted, to make the Jews disappear from the planet. Other forms of racism, although they
tend to disappear today, still survive in customs and traditions. I am one of those who think that we
must fight against the neglect of certain events. The Holocaust cannot be denied, it is a historical fact
and if we keep its memory alive, it’s because we do not want it to happen again. As I said, man is
made of values and anti-values and if the anti-values dominate, it is possible that there will be other
genocides may be with other races. That’s why we need to be vigilant.
49
Annex D
Speech by Samuel Pisar in the name of Holocaust survivors
and martyrs, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Honorable Heads and Former Heads of State and Government,
Chairman of the Islamic Conference Organization,
Grand Muftis, Cardinals, Chief Rabbis,
Director General of UNESCO,
Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations,
Mayor of Paris,
President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah,
President of Project Aladdin,
Excellencies, Eminences and Highnesses,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
To address in the name of the martyrs and survivors of this cursed and sacred place where the barge
of human civilization went under, such an illustrious international audience of political, religious and
cultural leaders, is an awesome responsibility. It was assigned to me because I am a survivor of Auschwitz, Majdanek and Dachau.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for having undertaken this truly historic pilgrimage to the
world’s largest cemetery – a cemetery without graves or tombstones, which accounts for more than
one and a half million innocent souls.Your presence here to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the
50
camp’s liberation and to launch an ecumenical dialogue about the Holocaust that transcends political,
ideological and religious strife, opens a new and promising horizon for the future.
We are gathered for this exceptional moment of inter-faith solidarity on the blood-soaked soil of
Poland, the country of my birth. Among the six million European Jews annihilated by the Nazis and
their accomplices, as much as a quarter, including my entire family and all 500 children of my school,
perished in the gas chambers of Birkenau (Auschwitz II) whose ruins you have inspected today. Some
200.000 Poles, Gypsies, prisoners of war, resistance fighters, political leaders and others were also
murdered here.
It is therefore here, united by the same pain, with the mind-boggling evidence staring us in the face, that
we can best meditate on the old and new forms of intolerance, injustice and violence that are again
inflaming our fratricidal and suicidal world. From here we speak to all nations, races and religions, to
white and black, rich and poor, young and old. For we are at the epicenter of the greatest catastrophe
ever perpetrated by man against man, under the largely indifferent gaze of our fellow-humans.
As a skeletal 15-year old with shaved head and sunken eyes, I was a direct witness of that catastrophe.
My testimony will spare you the unspeakable horrors I have endured, but allow me to evoke one
nightmarish image that haunts me to this day. Hallucinating from hunger, anxiety and grief, while the
crematoria spewed fire and smoke, I saw interminable lines of men, women and children, brought here
by cattle trains from all corners of this continent -- often 10,000 per day -- being herded into the gas
chambers. And I heard them murmur their last “Shema”, the ultimate prayer of our common Abrahamic faith: “The Lord, our God, the Lord is one.”
After the steel doors were shut, they had only three minutes to live.Yet they found enough strength to
dig their fingernails into the walls and scratch in the words: « Never Forget! » Those words, and their
myriad echoes that still reverberate in time and space, have imposed on us all a sacred obligation to
remember. The Auschwitz number engraved on my arm reminds me of it every day. And today, Excellencies and Eminences, it is my duty to remind you, indeed, everyone who would listen, and particularly
the young. For the deluge of hatred, cruelty and fear that is currently upon us threatens to devastate
their universe as it once devastated mine.
The planned and systematic extermination of my people unleashed by Hitler and his henchmen destroyed everyone and everything around me, and condemned me to slave labor till death, in this vast
extermination factory where Eichmann and Mengele eclipsed Dante’s vision of inferno. In the Spring
of 1945, as the victorious allied armies converged on Germany from East and West, I escaped from
my jailors in a hail of bullets, and was liberated by an armored column of American GI’s. After a long
and difficult rehabilitation, I went on to live, study, work and thrive in the warm embrace of freedom
and democracy.
Today, looking back on my tortuous odyssey of blood and hope, and the renewed carnage that is
spreading from continent to continent, I fear that mankind has learned nothing from the barbarism that
reigned in the era Auschwitz; that man remains capable of the worst as of the best, of hatred as of love,
of madness as of genius; that unless we heed the warnings of our horror-filled past, respect the sanctity
and dignity of human life and espouse the core universal values shared by all great creeds – religious
and secular - the darkness will return with a vengeance to ruin our future
In the wake of the “Final Solution” which decimated the Jewish nation, and the mass exterminations of
Cambodians, Bosnians, Rwandis, Darfuris and others since then, humanity is faced with growing risks
51
of new man-made calamities, some of them planetary, with plagues of toxic gas, swarms of nuclear
missiles and radioactive mushroom clouds. If such reflections are relevant today, it is because amid the
ashes of Auschwitz we can discern the specter of doomsday we are too blind to anticipate and too
divided to prevent.
From where, if not from this God-forsaken place can come the alert that the unthinkable is again
possible? Where if not here can we find the inspiration, courage and unity to deal with the existential
challenges that lie ahead? If the innocents who have perished here could make themselves heard, they
would surely clamor before you: “Never again devastating wars between hereditary enemies: Germans
and French, Chinese and Japanese, Indians and Pakistanis, Arabs and Jews; never again Crusades or
Jihads, Stalingrads or Hiroshimas, racist genocides, ethnic cleansings or religious assassinations. Never
Again!
We the last living survivors of the Holocaust are now disappearing one by one. After us history will
speak about it at best, with the impersonal voice of scholars and novelists; at worst, in the malevolent
register of falsifiers and demagogues. This process has already begun, and its most incendiary practitioners, who are still plotting to wipe us out, promote it in shameless disregard of the manifest truth.
No, Excellencies and Eminences, what we are commemorating today is not a ”myth”. It is a unique,
unprecedented, gruesome reality implemented by bloodthirsty tyrants and dictators on these very
killing fields. Cynical allegations by their would-be imitators, that the atrocious crimes against humanity
we have experienced in body and soul had never happened, are not only unbearably painful to hear.
They invite repetitions of such crimes against us, against others, even against their own long-suffering
kin. Permit me to say that this perverse mentality is unworthy of those who cherish the lofty commandments of our great faiths, and who worship the same monotheistic God.
This morning I had to pinch myself as I stood with my fellow-survivors in the bitter cold and icy wind
of Birkenau, reciting “Kaddish” – the timeless mourners’ prayer for loved ones -- in the presence of the
Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Archbishop of Paris, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and so many official envoys
from Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Senegal, Palestine and elsewhere. We were particularly moved by
the strong and stirring words of the Grand Mufti: “I am here to say to those who deny the Holocaust
in Auschwitz and the genocide in Srebrenica that they are also committing genocide.”
It is with deep gratitude and great expectations that we welcome your noble Project Aladdin – a
sobering call of conscience and conviction to raise public awareness of the ravages and lessons of the
Holocaust; and to oppose all new forms of prejudice, discrimination, persecution or terror -- be they
against Jews, Muslims, Christians or anyone else.
May the magic lamp of Aladdin help light the way to a more radiant future for the children of Abraham,
and all others yearning so fervently for freedom, democracy and peace.
52
Annex E
Speech by Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, at the
International Monument, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Why am I here today?
I am here because I wanted to see this with my own eyes.
As it is says in an Arabic proverb, « It is not the same what you hear and what you see ».
I want to thank the Aladdin Project, UNESCO, and the City of Paris for inviting us to see the extent
of evil that human beings can do to other human beings.
I didn’t care about Auschwitz, I didn’t know about Auschwitz until what happened to me and to my
people.
I am here to say to all of you and to the rest of the world: don’t wait for genocides to happen to
you. I am here to say to those who deny Holocaust in Auschwitz and those who deny genocide in
Srebrenica that you are capable of committing genocide again.
And if we really want to prevent future genocides we must do much more than sympathize with
the victims. We have to comprehend the psychological depth of the perpetrators of genocide and
indifference of genocide observers.
We have to learn what makes some persons, who were once normal, to hate other persons and
people to the extent that they want to systematically and methodically eliminate them all! But we
also need to learn about those who support genocide against innocent people or observe it from
the distance! We need to learn more about them too!
We need to learn about the holocaust and genocides not only as of historical facts but also as a
means to teach our children about the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other
examples of human intolerance.
53
We must teach younger generations to appreciate democracy and human rights and encourage
them to reject hatred, intolerance and ethnic conflicts so that “never again” is really true.
So I want to send a message: those who deny the Holocaust and genocides are capable of committing genocide again.
Today, here in Auschwitz we are united in hope that our future will be better than our past so let
us pray together:
•
Our Lord, if we sin, give us the strength of Adam's repentance!
•
If disaster befalls us, teach us how to build Noah’s Ark!
•
If despair darkens us, enlighten us with Abraham's honest faith!
•
If we are threatened by a tyrant, empower us with Moses’ courage!
•
If we are offered hatred, save us with Jesus' love!
•
If we are in despair and destitute, strengthen us with Mohammed's call for social justice!
•
Our Lord, we ask you to unite our hearts in humanity!
•
Our Lord, we ask you to strengthen our steps towards truth and justice!
•
Our Lord, we ask you to unite our will towards peace and security!
•Our Lord, we ask you to take away the violent sword from tyrants and empower the
weak with a trust in truth and justice.
•
Our Lord, do not let success deceive us
•
Nor failure takes us to despair!
•
Always remind us that failure is a temptation that precedes success!
•Our Lord, teach us that tolerance is the highest degree of power and that the desire for
revenge is the first sign of weakness!
•
Our Lord, if you deprive us of our property, give us hope!
•
If you take from us the blessing of health, provide us with the blessing of faith!
•
Our Lord, if we sin against people, give us the strength of apology!
•
And if people sin against us, give us the strength of forgiveness!
•
Our Lord, may grief become hope!
•
May revenge become justice!
•May mother's tears become prayers that Auschwitz and Srebrenica never happen again,
to anyone and anywhere! Amen!
54
Annex F
Remarks by Ms Irina Bokova,
Director-General of UNESCO, at the press conference
at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011
Mr Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë,
Mr President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the Islamic
Conference, Abdoulaye Wade,
Madam Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Asha-Rose Migiro,
Madam President of the Aladdin project, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
UNESCO has sponsored the Aladdin project since it was launched in 2009. Our support for this
project and our trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau tomorrow form part of our education programme on
Holocaust remembrance and tolerance.
The trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau is very close to our hearts at UNESCO for a number of reasons,
of which I shall mention two.
The first reason is that within the next 20 years or so, all the survivors of the Holocaust will have
passed away. In order to understand what the Holocaust was, all that we will have left will be their
eyewitness accounts, the historical records and the Auschwitz-Birkenau site. All of these resources
are vital, as they enable us to go beyond an “intellectual” and “abstract” representation of the massacre, in order to face the painful truth and the stark reality of death.
55
Auschwitz-Birkenau is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I would add that it is the only site to have
been inscribed by the States Parties with the explicit intention of fulfilling the duty to transmit
remembrance to future generations.
The second reason has to do with the composition of our delegation. The Holocaust does not just
concern a single nation or a single region.The Holocaust concerns all of us. All politicians, intellectuals
and religious leaders in every country throughout the world must combat negationism and racism.
Regardless of our origins, our culture or our religion, this trip can help to put an end to conflicts of
memory. It can help to foster the emergence of a collective memory based on a shared narrative
of the past.
This is the message of the Aladdin project and the message conveyed by UNESCO.The Holocaust is
not merely a “dark page” or a “tragic episode” of history, but a point of no return – the collapse of civilization. The Holocaust put paid to the meaning of collective construction, humanism and dialogue;
if we wish to rebuild humanism today, we are duty-bound to go back through Auschwitz-Birkenau.
I hope that with initiatives such as these we may help to make this death camp a gathering place for
all cultures of the world and the starting point of a new humanism.
Thank you.
56
Annex G
Remarks by Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, at the press
conference at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011
A visit to Auschwitz is an effort of truth and clarity with regard to human history. It’s a tribute to
the victims, a desire to give life to a message of humanity. But the unprecedented visit that we
will undertake tomorrow will have a larger, and I hope stronger, message. For tomorrow we'll be
together, women and men from all continents, of all races, of all colors of skin. We will be in a way
humanity itself, responding to that extraordinarily shameful moment for humanity with another
moment that brings honor to humanity. It is important that tomorrow we stand together, sitting
or former Heads of State, including the President of the Republic of Senegal who is also Chairman
of the Islamic Conference Organization, as well as mayors of the Maghreb, Africa, Europe, Turkey. It
is their presence, and the presence of many Turkish, Palestinian, North African, Pakistani, and other
personalities that's the strength of this gathering. Tomorrow, there will be Jews, Muslims, Christians,
as well as atheists and agnostics.Tomorrow there will be humanity at its most beautiful, when human
beings gather with no distinction other than their humanity, in order to say that this did take place,
that we condemn it, that we want it to be known and that we affirm in the face of humanity that we
stand united to reject anti-Semitism, racism, Islamophobia, and discrimination of any kind.
57
Annex H
Speech by Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Director General
of the United Nations, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Holocaust survivors,
I am deeply moved and humbled to be standing in Auschwitz, where millions of men, women and
children were brutally and systematically murdered during the Holocaust.
I am honored to be here with survivors who had the good fortune to rise above their Nazi tormenters. And honored to pay tribute to the liberators who triumphed over the Nazi atrocities.
Auschwitz will be forever imprinted in our minds and souls as the international symbol of mass
murder and horror.
Our hearts will continue to ache for the suffering of the victims and their families. Only near the end
of the war did the world begin to grasp the extent of the genocide and crimes committed here.
Even now, decades later, we still have much to learn. That is why the United Nations instituted an
annual day of commemoration in memory of the victims.
And that is why the United Nations General Assembly called for an outreach programme to develop educational materials about the Holocaust. To help people understand what happened here and
across the vast sea of extermination camps -- so that it may never, ever happen again.
We are hard at work with partners such as Yad Vashem, reaching out to young people the world
over. We are promoting respect for diversity and human rights, combating hatred and racism. We are
speaking out against all forms of Holocaust denial.
We owe this to all those today who face prejudice and violence. And we owe this to the millions of
Jews and other minorities to whom we pay tribute today.
May these surroundings, and the memories of what happened here, guide us in heeding the lessons
of the Holocaust.
Here in Auschwitz-Birkenau, where darkness fell. Let us pledge to bring more light to the world.
Thank you.
58
Annex I
Speech by Gerhard Schröder,
Auschwitz, February 1, 2011
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
After visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial, it is hard to find any words, let alone the right ones,
to express the incomprehensible.
As a former Chancellor of Germany, I feel that I have a special responsibility when being asked to
speak on such an occasion and in this place.
I bow my head to all the victims of the tyrannical Nazi regime.
It originated in Germany and claimed millions of victims.
Here in Auschwitz-Birkenau of all places, where the annihilation of human life was perpetuated by
monstrous machinery; I say, we are here in remembrance of every single victim.
We owe it to them and their dignity that was brutally taken from them.
But, above all, the commitment we owe to the victims is that we will endeavour to ensure that such
a crime can NEVER be allowed to happen again.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This historic responsibility places special duties on us all, but especially on Germany.
The memory of the National Socialist period, of war, genocide and crimes against humanity has
become deeply ingrained in our national identity.
Out of this remembrance arises the imperative for democratic Germany to oppose the forces of
injustice and tyranny, whatever form they may take.
Out of this remembrance grows Germany's recognition of Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state
within secure borders.
This commitment is one of the cornerstones of Germany's foreign policy.
It is also a fundamental principle of German foreign policy to strive for a viable and independent
state for the Palestinian people.
We know that this is a precondition for the establishment and maintenance of permanent peace
in the Middle East.
59
Ladies and gentlemen,
The death of millions of people,
The anguish of the survivors,
The agonies of the victims and
The resistance of the brave –
All these are the foundation of our joint mission to create a better future.
This better future will only be possible without anti-Semitism and racism, without injustice and
violence.
That is why I feel deeply honoured that Baron David de Rothschild has invited me to be a patron
of the Aladdin Project.
The dialogue between cultures and religions helps us move towards a goal that we all share, namely,
to live in a world of peace and freedom.
The purpose of this project is to achieve an objective and sensitive understanding of history.
This is needed because - all too often - strange, misguided ideas still exist with regard to the Shoah.
This project works for respectful, humane and, above all, peaceful relations within and between our
societies.
We want people of diverse origins, different language and religious backgrounds to be able to share
a common future and enjoy a life in peace.
Tolerance, mutual understanding and reconciliation are the lessons we must learn from the Shoah.
That is the least that we owe to the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
And that is the mission! A mission that is incumbent on us across the generations.
Thank you.
60
Annex J
Message of Dr. Ali Goma’a, Grand Mufti of Egypt,
to the Aladdin Project on the occasion
of the visit to Auschwitz
As there are fewer survivors of the Holocaust to tell their stories today, it is of primary importance
that these universal lessons be shared with all fellow human beings. Only this will ensure that their
legacy will continue to promote respect for diversity and human rights for generations to come.
Wherever minorities are being persecuted, we must raise our voices to protest. The essence of
this day of commemoration lies in its twofold purpose: one that deals with the memory and
remembrance of those who were massacred during the Holocaust, and the other with educating
future generations of its horrors teaching them that we should join our hands together, that we
are essentially in one boat and that we must do our utmost so that all peoples must enjoy the
protections and rights that all human begins are entitled to irrespective of their racial, religious or
ethnic backgrounds.
61
n
Production supervisor:
Diana Tey
Graphic design:
Kalawave
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Photo credits:
p.14 : Serge Klarsfeld in Erbil, Iraq ©The Aladdin Project
p.19 : UNESCO conference for the launch of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah in Persian. French Culture
Minister Frederic Mitterrand, journalist Philippe Dessaint, Claude Lanzmann, UNESCO Director
General Irina Bokova, Aladdin Project President Anne-Marie Revcolevschi ©Erez Lichtfeld
p.21 : Grand Mufti of Bosnia Dr. Mustafa Ceric addressing the international delegation at the
International Monument in Auschwitz ©Erez Lichtfeld
p.22 : Press conference at the City Hall of Paris: Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, UN Deputy Secretary
General Asha-Rose Migiro, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade,
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova ©Erez Lichtfeld
p.23 : Wreath-laying ceremony in Auschwitz: from left: Irina Bokova, Asha-Rose Migiro, Gerhard
Schröder, Raphael Esrail, President of the Union of French Deportees to Auschwitz ©Erez Lichtfeld
Photos in annexes (except photo of Dr. Goma’a) ©Erez Lichtfeld
62
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A Call to Conscience
“A Call to Conscience” is the declaration of principles of the Aladdin Project. It was signed
by President Abdoulaye Wade, Mr. Jacques Chirac and Mrs. Simone Veil at the launch
conference of the Aladdin Project on behalf of all the participants. Since then, hundreds
of intellectuals and public figures from around the world have added their signatures.
e, women and men in public life, historians, intellectuals and people from all faiths, have come
W
together to declare that the defence of values of justice and fraternity must overwhelm all
obstacles to prevail over intolerance, racism and conflict.
With every passing day, we witness a rising tide of hatred and violence filling the gulf of misunderstanding.
This particularly affects the current relations between Muslims and Jews, while for centuries - in Persia,
throughout the Middle East, in North Africa and across the Ottoman Empire - they lived together
often in harmony. We say clearly that the Israelis and the Palestinians have a right to their own state,
their own sovereignty and security and that any peace process with such aims must be supported.
In the face of ignorance, prejudice and competing memories that we reject, we believe in the power
of knowledge and the primacy of History. We therefore affirm, beyond all political considerations, our
determination to defend historical truth, for no peace is built on lies. The Holocaust is a historical fact:
the genocide in which six million European Jews were exterminated. Its scope is universal, for it was
the values of dignity and respect for human beings that Nazi Germany and its European accomplices
sought to destroy.
To deny this crime against humanity is not only an insult to the memory of the victims, but also an insult
to the very idea of civilization. Hence, we believe that the teaching of this tragedy concerns all those
who have at heart the will to prevent further genocides. The same requirement of truth calls on us to
recall the actions of the Righteous in Europe and in the Arab and Muslim world. Together, we declare
our common desire to promote a sincere dialogue, open and fraternal. It is in this spirit that we have
gathered around the Aladdin Project. We call on all men and women of conscience around the world
to work with us in this common endeavour of shared knowledge, mutual respect and peace.
The
Aladdin
Project
8, rue de Prague - 75012 Paris
Tél : +33 (0)1 43 07 25 76
Fax : +33 (0)1 43 07 73 27
www.projetaladin.org
www.aladdinlibrary.org
[email protected]