ISRAEL: Today, the world remembers the Nazi slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust. Nuala Haughey reports from the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, 59 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.
"The Jewish nose is curved at the edge. It looks like a number six." This example from a Nazi textbook lesson on How to Recognise a Jew was shown to 29 European diplomats who gathered yesterday in Israel's Holocaust museum for a remembrance event.
The illustrated lesson came from a 1938 anti-Semitic propaganda book, The Poison Mushroom, which used the quaint story-telling format to teach German children that Jews were cunning, stupid and ugly, and must be eradicated.
The International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem has incorporated such materials in a lesson plan designed for European school children which explores the teaching of Nazi racist ideology in German schools following Hitler's rise to power. The Israeli authorities yesterday invited European states to introduce this lesson in their classrooms.
The launch of the one-hour lesson plan coincides with what for many European countries is Holocaust Remembrance Day today, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The Jewish state commemorates the Holocaust in May, the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto revolt, so yesterday's event was more informative than solemn.
Following growing concerns about anti-Semitism in Europe, Israel this year designated 27th January as National Day to Combat Anti-Semitism.
While there have been recent attacks on synagogues and Jewish school children in European states, a survey released by the Israeli government at the weekend showed a global decline in anti-Semitic attacks in 2003, while noting an increase in France.
The Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, Mr Natan Sharansky, told the gathered diplomats that the foundation of today's anti-Semitism was coming from Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Palestinian Authority.
He said European countries were taking steps to combat anti-Semitism, but cautioned that demonising of Jews in the past has been turned into demonising the Jewish state today.
Israel could accept legitimate political criticism, "but when the same type of demonising of the Jewish state is used at the same time for demonising Jews, that's dangerous," he said.
"The Holocaust could happen only when tens of thousands of people felt Jews were less than people. If day after day it is repeated that Israel is a Nazi state, with cartoons in the press showing Israeli leaders eating children and the army crucifying children . . . that is what is making the demonisation."
Mr Sharansky said Israel was very concerned about the fact that Jews in Paris are advised not to wear their skullcaps because it could be dangerous, and that Jewish cemeteries are being destroyed in "enlightened Europe". Education was the key to preventing anti-Semitism, he added.
The Irish ambassador to Israel, Mr Patrick Hennessy, reminded the gathering that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, had said on his recent visit to Israel that anti-Semitism is a crime of the highest magnitude which we all have a duty to fight.
Ireland as a nation and in its current role as president of the European Union takes this extremely seriously, he said.
"We are very conscious that there is always room to do better and for more effective action. I think the issue is now on the agenda in a way that it wasn't previously," he added.