The Shoah, the planned destruction of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime and their collaborators, has fundamentally challenged our comprehension of human behaviour. As Jews, we continue to grapple with our history and continuity in the shadow of the Holocaust. The State of Israel, the Jewish State, being the central representative of Holocaust victims, survivors and their families, is committed to Holocaust education, commemoration and research.

Israel's delegation to the Stockholm International Forum welcomes the activities of various governments and non-governmental organizations, to further Holocaust education in their own countries. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the work of the International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research that was established in May 1998, at the initiative of the Prime Minister of Sweden. We sincerely hope that the Task Force will succeed in promoting worldwide awareness of the Holocaust and its moral lessons as well as aid in combating racism, antisemitism, Holocaust denial and ethnic hatred.

The memory of the Holocaust and its educational challenges is a heavy burden that we all have to bear. We believe that holocaust education should not only concentrate on the Nazi annihilation process. The perpetrators took away the victim's home, belongings, clothes, but most importantly their identities. The way to come closer to understanding the Holocaust is by focusing on how individuals behaved during that time, especially the dilemmas they faced on a daily basis: the manner in which the victims struggled with choiceless choices: the personal and collective responsibility of the perpetrators, and the ethical questions of the bystanders all need to be explored in depth. Using an interdisciplinary approach to theatre, technology and science along with a discussion of the relevance to today's world of values-related questions that arise as we deal with issues, allows students to gain a better understanding of this difficult subject matter.

As Holocaust survivors pass on their legacy to future generations, we must remember that there is no adequate compensation for the loss of life and human anguish. The matter of restitution of Jewish assets all over the world is not merely a material issue, but a moral imperative with a strong educational message. We endorse the universal principle of restitution of property and welcome the openness of various countries researching the facts and facing their past.

Quoting the late Abba Kover a ghetto fighter and an Israeli writer:
" And perhaps this is the pedagogic imperative of the post-Auschwitz generation, to try and engrave into the memory of the coming generations the message of our generation, a difficult, but a true and honest message: A Jew who knew what the Holocaust was, his life consists of a constant tension between blessing and cursing, between the satisfaction of life and its damnation."

The Israeli delegation would like to express its sincere appreciation to the Government of Sweden for its initiative in organizing the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, hosted by Prime Minister Göran Persson.