Remarks by the President at the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum
April 23, 2012 – Washington, D.C.
THE
PRESIDENT: Good morning, everyone. It is a great honor to be with
you here today. Of course, it is a truly humbling moment to be introduced
by Elie Wiesel. Along with Sara Bloomfield, the outstanding director
here, we just spent some time among the exhibits, and this is now the second
visit I've had here. My daughters have come here. It is a searing
occasion whenever you visit. And as we walked, I was taken back to the visit
that Elie mentioned, the time that we traveled together to Buchenwald.
And I recall how he showed me the barbed-wire fences and the guard
towers. And we walked the rows where the barracks once stood, where so
many left this Earth -- including ElieÕs father, Shlomo. We stopped at an
old photo -- men and boys lying in their wooden bunks, barely more than
skeletons. And if you look closely, you can see a 16-year old boy,
looking right at the camera, right into your eyes. You can see
Elie.
And at the end of our visit that day, Elie spoke of his father. "I
thought one day I will come back and speak to him," he said, "of
times in which memory has become a sacred duty of all people of
goodwill." Elie, you've devoted your life to upholding that sacred
duty. YouÕve challenged us all -- as individuals, and as nations -- to do
the same, with the power of your example, the eloquence of your words, as you
did again just now. And so to you and Marion, we are extraordinarily
grateful.
To Sara, to Tom Bernstein, to Josh Bolten, members of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, and everyone who sustains this living memorial --
thank you for welcoming us here today. To the members of Congress,
members of the diplomatic corps, including Ambassador Michael Oren of Israel,
we are glad to be with you.
And most of all, we are honored to be in the presence of men and women whose
lives are a testament to the endurance and the strength of the human spirit --
the inspiring survivors. It is a privilege to be with you, on a very
personal level. As IÕve told some of you before, I grew up hearing
stories about my great uncle -- a soldier in the 89th Infantry Division who was
stunned and shaken by what he saw when he helped to liberate Ordruf, part of Buchenwald.
And IÕll never forget what I saw at Buchenwald, where so many perished with the
words of ShÕma YisÕraÕeil on their lips.
IÕve stood with survivors, in the old Warsaw ghettos, where a monument honors
heroes who said we will not go quietly; we will stand up, we will fight
back. And IÕve walked those sacred grounds at Yad Vashem, with its lesson
for all nations -- the Shoah cannot be denied.
During my visit to Yad Vashem I was given a gift, inscribed with those words
from the Book of Joel: "Has the like of this happened in your days
or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, and let your
children tell theirs, and their children the next generation."
ThatÕs why weÕre here. Not simply to remember, but to speak.
I say this as a President, and I say it as a father. We must tell our
children about a crime unique in human history. The one and only
Holocaust -- six million innocent people -- men, women, children, babies --
sent to their deaths just for being different, just for being Jewish. We
tell them, our children, about the millions of Poles and Catholics and Roma and
gay people and so many others who also must never be forgotten. Let us
tell our children not only how they died, but also how they lived -- as fathers
and mothers, and sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters who loved and
hoped and dreamed, just like us.
We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen -- because
so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts, and because so many others
stood silent. Let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the
Nations. Among them was Jan Karski, a young Polish Catholic, who
witnessed Jews being put on cattle cars, who saw the killings, and who told the
truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself.
Jan Karski passed away more than a decade ago. But today, IÕm proud to
announce that this spring I will honor him with AmericaÕs highest civilian
honor -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
We must tell our children. But more than that, we must teach them.
Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Awareness
without action changes nothing. In this sense, "never again" is
a challenge to us all -- to pause and to look within.
For the Holocaust may have reached its barbaric climax at Treblinka and
Auschwitz and Belzec, but it started in the hearts of ordinary men and
women. And we have seen it again -- madness that can sweep through
peoples, sweep through nations, embed itself. The killings in Cambodia, the
killings in Rwanda, the killings in Bosnia, the killings in Darfur -- they
shock our conscience, but they are the awful extreme of a spectrum of ignorance
and intolerance that we see every day; the bigotry that says another person is
less than my equal, less than human. These are the seeds of hate that we
cannot let take root in our heart.
"Never again" is a challenge to reject hatred in all of its forms --
including anti-Semitism, which has no place in a civilized world. And
today, just steps from where he gave his life protecting this place, we honor
the memory of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, whose family joins us today.
"Never again" is a challenge to defend the fundamental right of free
people and free nations to exist in peace and security -- and that includes the
State of Israel. And on my visit to the old Warsaw Ghetto, a woman looked
me in the eye, and she wanted to make sure America stood with Israel. She
said, "ItÕs the only Jewish state we have." And I made her a
promise in that solemn place. I said I will always be there for Israel.
So when efforts are made to equate Zionism to racism, we reject them.
When international fora single out Israel with unfair resolutions, we vote
against them. When attempts are made to delegitimize the state of Israel,
we oppose them. When faced with a regime that threatens global security
and denies the Holocaust and threatens to destroy Israel, the United States
will do everything in our power to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
"Never again" is a challenge to societies. WeÕre joined today
by communities whoÕve made it your mission to prevent mass atrocities in our
time. This museumÕs Committee of Conscience, NGOs, faith groups, college
students, youÕve harnessed the tools of the digital age -- online maps and
satellites and a video and social media campaign seen by millions. You
understand that change comes from the bottom up, from the grassroots. You
understand -- to quote the task force convened by this museum -- "preventing
genocide is an achievable goal." It is an achievable goal. It
is one that does not start from the top; it starts from the bottom up.
ItÕs remarkable -- as we walked through this exhibit, Elie and I were talking
as we looked at the unhappy record of the State Department and so many
officials here in the United States during those years. And he asked,
"What would you do?" But what you all understand is you don't
just count on officials, you don't just count on governments. You count
on people -- and mobilizing their consciences.
And finally, "never again" is a challenge to nations. ItÕs a
bitter truth -- too often, the world has failed to prevent the killing of
innocents on a massive scale. And we are haunted by the atrocities that
we did not stop and the lives we did not save.
Three years ago today, I joined many of you for a ceremony of remembrance at
the U.S. Capitol. And I said that we had to do "everything we can to
prevent and end atrocities." And so I want to report back to some of
you today to let you know that as President IÕve done my utmost to back up
those words with deeds. Last year, in the first-ever presidential
directive on this challenge, I made it clear that "preventing mass
atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral
responsibility of the United States of America."
That does not mean that we intervene militarily every time thereÕs an injustice
in the world. We cannot and should not. It does mean we possess
many tools -- diplomatic and political, and economic and financial, and
intelligence and law enforcement and our moral suasion -- and using these tools
over the past three years, I believe -- I know -- that we have saved countless
lives.
When the referendum in South Sudan was in doubt, it threatened to reignite a
conflict that had killed millions. But with determined diplomacy,
including by some people in this room, South Sudan became the worldÕs newest
nation. And our diplomacy continues, because in Darfur, in Abyei, in Southern
Kordofan and the Blue Nile, the killing of innocents must come to an end.
The Presidents of Sudan and South Sudan must have the courage to negotiate --
because the people of Sudan and South Sudan deserve peace. That is work
that we have done, and it has saved lives.
When the incumbent in C™te DÕIvoire lost an election but refused to give it up
-- give up power, it threatened to unleash untold ethnic and religious
killings. But with regional and international diplomacy, and U.N.
peacekeepers who stood their ground and protected civilians, the former leader
is now in The Hague, and C™te DÕIvoire is governed by its rightful leader --
and lives were saved.
When the Libyan people demanded their rights and Muammar QaddafiÕs forces bore
down on Benghazi, a city of 700,000, and threatened to hunt down its people
like rats, we forged with allies and partners a coalition that stopped his
troops in their tracks. And today, the Libyan people are forging their
own future, and the world can take pride in the innocent lives that we saved.
And when the LordÕs Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony continued its atrocities
in Central Africa, I ordered a small number of American advisors to help Uganda
and its neighbors pursue the LRA. And when I made that announcement, I directed
my National Security Council to review our progress after 150 days. We
have done so, and today I can announce that our advisors will continue their
efforts to bring this madman to justice, and to save lives.
(Applause.) It is part of our regional strategy to end the scourge that
is the LRA, and help realize a future where no African child is stolen from
their family and no girl is raped and no boy is turned into a child
soldier.
WeÕve stepped up our efforts in other ways. WeÕre doing more to protect
women and girls from the horror of wartime sexual violence. With the
arrest of fugitives like Ratko Mladic, charged with ethnic cleansing in Bosnia,
the world sent a message to war criminals everywhere: We will not relent
in bringing you to justice. Be on notice. And for the first time,
we explicitly barred entry into the United States of those responsible for war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
Now weÕre doing something more. WeÕre making sure that the United States
government has the structures, the mechanisms to better prevent and respond to
mass atrocities. So I created the first-ever White House position
dedicated to this task. ItÕs why I created a new Atrocities Prevention
Board, to bring together senior officials from across our government to focus
on this critical mission. This is not an afterthought. This is not
a sideline in our foreign policy. The board will convene for the first
time today, at the White House. And IÕm pleased that one of its first acts
will be to meet with some of your organizations -- citizens and activists who
are partners in this work, who have been carrying this torch.
Going forward, weÕll strengthen our tools across the board, and we'll create
new ones. The intelligence community will prepare, for example, the
first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on the risk of mass atrocities and
genocide. We're going to institutionalize the focus on this issue.
Across government, "alert channels" will ensure that information
about unfolding crises -- and dissenting opinions -- quickly reach
decision-makers, including me.
Our Treasury Department will work to more quickly deploy its financial tools to
block the flow of money to abusive regimes. Our military will take
additional steps to incorporate the prevention of atrocities into its doctrine
and its planning. And the State Department will increase its ability to
surge our diplomats and experts in a crisis. USAID will invite people and
high-tech companies to help create new technologies to quickly expose
violations of human rights. And weÕll work with other nations so the
burden is better shared -- because this is a global responsibility.
In short, we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these
kinds of atrocities -- because national sovereignty is never a license to
slaughter your people.
We recognize that, even as we do all we can, we cannot control every
event. And when innocents suffer, it tears at our conscience. Elie
alluded to what we feel as we see the Syrian people subjected to unspeakable
violence, simply for demanding their universal rights. And we have to do
everything we can. And as we do, we have to remember that despite all the
tanks and all the snipers, all the torture and brutality unleashed against
them, the Syrian people still brave the streets. They still demand to be
heard. They still seek their dignity. The Syrian people have not
given up, which is why we cannot give up.
And so with allies
and partners, we will keep increasing the pressure, with a diplomatic effort to
further isolate Assad and his regime, so that those who stick with Assad know
that they are making a losing bet. WeÕll keep increasing sanctions to cut
off the regime from the money it needs to survive. WeÕll sustain a legal
effort to document atrocities so killers face justice, and a humanitarian
effort to get relief and medicine to the Syrian people. And weÕll keep
working with the "Friends of Syria" to increase support for the
Syrian opposition as it grows stronger.
Indeed, today weÕre
taking another step. IÕve signed an executive order that authorizes new
sanctions against the Syrian government and Iran and those that abet them for
using technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence.
These technologies should not empower -- these technologies should be in place
to empower citizens, not to repress them. And itÕs one more step that we
can take toward the day that we know will come -- the end of the Assad regime
that has brutalized the Syrian people -- and allow the Syrian people to chart
their own destiny.
Even with all the
efforts IÕve described today, even with everything that hopefully we have
learned, even with the incredible power of museums like this one, even with
everything that we do to try to teach our children about our own
responsibilities, we know that our work will never be done. There will be
conflicts that are not easily resolved. There will be senseless deaths
that arenÕt prevented. There will be stories of pain and hardship that test
our hopes and try our conscience. And in such moments it can be hard to
imagine a more just world.
It can be tempting to throw up our hands and resign ourselves to manÕs endless
capacity for cruelty. ItÕs tempting sometimes to believe that there is
nothing we can do. And all of us have those doubts. All of us have
those moments -- perhaps especially those who work most ardently in these
fields.
So in the end, I come back to something Elie said that day we visited
Buchenwald together. Reflecting on all that he had endured, he said,
"We had the right to give up." "We had the right to give
up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on
the possibility of living one's life with dignity, in a world that has no place
for dignity." They had that right. Imagine what they went
through. They had the right to give up. Nobody would begrudge them
that. WhoÕd question someone giving up in such circumstances?
But, Elie said, "We rejected that possibility, and we said, no, we must continue
believing in a future." To stare into the abyss, to face the
darkness and insist there is a future -- to not give up, to say yes to life, to
believe in the possibility of justice.
To Elie and to the survivors who are here today, thank you for not giving
up. You show us the way. You show us the way. If you cannot
give up, if you can believe, then we can believe. If you can continue to
strive and speak, then we can speak and strive for a future where thereÕs a
place for dignity for every human being. That has been the cause of your
lives. It must be the work of our nation and of all nations.
So God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. Thank
you very much.