Terezín Declaration
List of States: 1. Albania; 2. Argentina; 3. Australia; 4. Austria; 5. Belarus; 6. Belgium; ;7. Bosnia and Herzegovina; 8. Brazil; 9. Bulgaria; 10. Canada; 11. Croatia; 12. Cyprus; 13. Czech Republic; 14. Denmark; 15. Estonia; 16. Finland; 17. France; 18. North Macedonia; 19. Germany; 20. Greece; 21. Hungary; 22. Ireland; 23. Israel; 24. Italy; 25. Latvia; 26. Lithuania; 27. Luxembourg; 28. Malta; 29. Moldova; 30. Montenegro; 31. The Netherlands; 32. Norway; 33. Poland; 34. Portugal; 35. Romania; 36. Russia; 37. Slovakia; 38. Slovenia; 39. Spain; 40. Sweden; 41. Switzerland; 42. Turkey; 43. Ukraine; 44. United Kingdom; 45. United States; 46. Uruguay; The Holy See (observer); 47. Serbia (observer) (later endorsed)
Full Text of Terezín Declaration (PDF, 83 KB)
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Program of the
Terezín Declaration Conference
during the Czech Presidency
of the Council of the EU
Nov 2-4, 2022
Program as of Nov 1, 2022
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, presents its compliments to the 47 countries who endorsed The Terezín Declaration in 2009 and has the honor to inform about preparations of the follow-up international conference to be held in Prague and Terezín on November 2-4, 2022.
The main program of the International Terezín Declaration Conference will be organized in the Czernin Palace in Prague on Thursday November 3, 2022 as one of the main events during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The aim of the conference is to take another significant step in future Holocaust remembrance, education of the young generation, reflecting and tackling injustices from the time of the Holocaust and combating antisemitism (especially online) as a means of preventing similar atrocities in our time and in the future. During the conference, the countries will be invited to make their pledges based on the Terezín Declaration for the coming next 3 years and come up with new ideas of additional steps that can be taken as an implementation of the Terezín Declaration. As part of the conference program, the effects of Russian aggression in Ukraine will also be reflected, including the social welfare of Holocaust survivors.
The Conference will be with the physical presence of the speakers and panel participants. The event is organized by the Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Interfaith Dialogue and FoRB.
Program
Wednesday Nov 2, 2022 – Experts Meeting & SECCA Meeting
1:00pm-4:00pm (Trauttmansdorff Palace)
Experts Meeting organized by the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague and SECCA Meeting (Special Envoys & Coordinators Combating Antisemitism) – as an initiative of the World Jewish Congress
(Detailed programs see below)
Welcome Drink at the US Ambassador's Residence in Prague for the Heads of Delegations, Panelists and Speakers
8:00pm – 9:30pm (US Ambassador's Residence)
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Thursday Nov 3, 2022 - International Conference
Registration
8:30am – 9:00am (Ceremonial Entrance)
Exhibition of Illustrations from the Ghetto Terezín
Main Session in the Czernin Palace
1. Opening Speeches
9:00am – 10:00am (Main Hall)
Jan Lipavský, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State (video)
Meirav Cohen, Minister of Social Equality of the State of Israel
Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission
Colette Avital, Chairperson of the Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivors
Dita Kraus, Holocaust survivor born 1929 in Prague
Avraham Roet, Holocaust survivor introduced by Sharon Buenos, Global Director, Project Zikaron BaSalon זיכרון בסלון
Moderator: Robert Řehák, Special Envoy for Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue and FoRB, Czech Republic
2. From Terezín Declaration Conference in 2009 to Terezín Declaration Conference in 2022
10:00am – 10:30am (Main Hall)
The panel will pursue progress of the member countries in accomplishing laid down objectives of the Terezín Declaration since its announcing in 2009. Important milestone for this purpose was the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act adopted in the US, which provides an overview of successes of each country in reaching declared aims.
Stuart E. Eizenstat, Chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Council and Special Advisor on Holocaust Issues to the US Secretary of State
Ellen Germain, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, U.S. Department of State
Chair: Nicolas de Torrenté, Special Envoy to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Switzerland
Coffee Break
10:30am – 10:45am (Entrance to the Main Hall)
3. Parallel Sessions: Education & National Statements
3.1. Education, Countering Disinformation and Future Remembrance
10:45am – 12:00pm (Main Hall)
The panel will discuss new and innovative approaches in education, research and programs related to the future Holocaust remembrance and promoting tolerance in the society. Education is one of the strongest tools that can be used to strengthen young people’s resilience against disinformation and to fight intolerance, discrimination, hate and antisemitism. To engage with Jewish communities and their members as well as with other minorities could be the perfect opportunity to foster and flourish mutual understanding.
Claudia Roth, Minister of State in the Chancellery, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Yehuda Bauer, Israeli Historian and Scholar of the Holocaust
Annette Schavan, Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility and Future, Former Minister of Education of Germany
Jan Roubínek, Director of Terezín Memorial
Yossi Gevir, Director of External & Governmental Affairs at Yad Vashem
Chair: Ann Bernes, President of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Special Presidential Message to the Terezín Declaration Conference Participants
12:00pm – 12:15pm (Main Hall)
Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic (text)
Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel (video)
3.2. National Statements, Contributions and Voluntary Pledges
10:45am – 12:15pm (Blue Hall)
Claudia Roth, Minister of State in the Chancellery, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Germany
Karoline Edtstadler, Minister for Europe, Austria (video)
Roberto Alejandro Salafia, Ambassador, Argentina
Thomas Piana, Deputy Ambassador for Human Rights, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, France
Tristan Azbej, State Secretary, Hungary
Jackie O’Halloran Bernstein, Director, Human Rights, Political Division, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland
Meir Bing, Director General, Ministry of Social Equality, Israel
Lepša Štulić, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Prague, Serbia
Ulrika Sundberg, Special Envoy, Sweden
Simon Geissbühler, Assistant Secretary of State and Head, Peace and Human Rights Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland
Egemen Bağış, Ambassador of Türkiye to the Czech Republic, Türkiye
National Statement of Kosovo* (video)
Chair: Dan Haezrachy, Special Envoy for Holocaust Era Restitution, Israel
Lunch
12:15pm - 1:15pm (Gallery)
4. National Strategies to Combat Antisemitism and Online Hate Speech
1:15pm – 2:30pm (Main Hall)
The panel will deal with the progress since the European Commission adopted the first-ever EU strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life. Some member states have already finished their strategies and other member states are currently designing their strategies and national policies, which should be assessed by the Commission by the end of 2023. The panel will also deal with the problem, how to improve the algorithms on social media platforms, which should not promote the division of society, hatred, discrimination, and antisemitism, but on the contrary positively motivate especially young people to fight against these phenomena and encourage tolerance and mutual understanding.
Rabbi Andrew Baker, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism & American Jewish Committee
František Vrabel, Founder of Semantic Visions, a Prague-based analytics firm that collects and analyzes 90% of the world’s online news content
Stéphane Dion, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the European Union and Europe, and Canada’s Ambassador to France and Monaco
Irina Rosensaft, Digital Transformation Lead at the Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany; Jewish Diplomatic Corps, World Jewish Congress
Chair: Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combatting Antisemitism
5. Tackling Injustices from the Time of the Holocaust - Immovable Property and Looted Art
2:30pm – 3:45pm (Main Hall)
Hannah Lessing, Austrian National Fund
David Zivie, Head of Mission for Research and Restitution of Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945, French Ministry of Culture
Anne Webber, Co-Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe
Wesley Fisher, Director of Research, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff, former Austrian Ambassador in Prague
Chair: Rt Hon Lord Eric Pickles, United Kingdom Special Envoy for post-Holocaust Issues
Coffee Break
3:45pm – 3:55pm (Entrance to the Main Hall)
6. Social welfare of the Holocaust Survivors and Helping to the Holocaust Survivors in Ukraine
3:55pm – 4:15pm (Main Hall)
Greg Schneider, Executive VP of the Claims Conference
Maya Cimeša Samokovlija, Executive Director of Community Relations, World Jewish Congress
Chair: Mark Weitzman, COO WJRO, Former Chair of IHRA Antisemitism Committee
7. Presentation of the Conference Outputs and of the International Youth Video Contest
4:15pm – 4:30pm (Main Hall)
Presentation of the Conference Outputs and of the International Video Contest: Why and How to Commemorate the Holocaust Today?
End of Session
4:30pm
Defiant Requiem Concert: Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer
6:00pm – 7:15pm (Main Hall)
Opening speech
Anna Azari, Ambassador of Israel to the Czech Republic
Tomáš Pojar, Advisor for Foreign and Security Policy to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
Hours of Freedom is a stirring multimedia concert-drama featuring music by composers imprisoned in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Concentration Camp during WWII. Presented as nine chapters with titles including, “Hope”, “Fate”, “Longing” and “The Eyewitness” this concert combines music, video, and narrative to highlight works by Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Rudolf Karel, and others. The compositions performed portray the agony and suffering of camp life, along with the inspiration, revelation, harmony, and hope that comes through music.
Created & written by Murry Sidlin
Presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation
Dinner
7:30pm (Gallery)
Dinner for Delegates in the Czernin Palace
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Friday Nov 4, 2022 – Tour to Terezín
Guided Visit of the Ghetto Terezín
8:45am – Meeting at the Czernin Palace
9:00am – Departure
9:15am – 9:35am – Memorial of Silence at the Prague Bubny Railway Station presented by Pavel Štingl, Director of Memorial of Silence (historical place from where people were deported to Terezín)
10:20am – 12:00pm – Guided Tour of the Ghetto Terezín
12:00pm – 12:40pm – Buffet lunch in Terezín
1:40pm – Return to Czernin Palace
Bus transport to Terezín will be provided for the registered delegates, departing from the Czernin Palace. The return to Prague will be around 1:40pm.
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Detailed Preliminary Program of the Experts Meeting
Wednesday Nov 2, 2022
1:00pm-4:00pm (Trauttmansdorff Palace)
Experts Meeting is held under the honorary auspices of the Charles University Rector Prof. MUDr. Milena Králíčková, Ph.D and organized by the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.
Opening Speech
1:00pm-1:30pm (Trauttmansdorff Palace)
Prof. MUDr. Milena Králíčková, Ph.D, Rector of the Charles University in Prague
PhDr. Milan Žonca, Ph.D., Vice-Dean for International Relations
Libuše Heczková, Director of the Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Key Speakers
1:30pm-2:20pm (Trauttmansdorff Palace)
Julius H. Schoeps, Founding Director of The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish studies, University of Potsdam: The Deportation of my Grandparents Käthe and Julius Schoeps from Berlin to Theresienstadt
Mag. Natascha Drubek-Meyer, Ph.D, The School of Slavonic and East, European Studies (SSEES), University College London: Five Reasons Why the Film Made in The Ghetto Theresienstadt Matters Today
Chair: ThDr. Petr J. Vinš, Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Coffee Break
2:20pm – 2:40pm
Parallel Sessions:
Session A: Terezín after Three-quarters of a Century
2:40pm-4:00pm (Trauttmansdorff Palace)
Jiří Sozanský, PhDr. Jan Roubínek, B.A. (Terezín Memorial): Jiří Sozanský’s Terezín Ghetto as Inspiration
Prof. Jiří Holý, Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University: Czech and German-Language Literature in Terezín
Chair: Mag. Petr Brod, M.A.
Presentations by Students of the Faculty of Arts
Šárka Sladovníková: Ghetto Theresienstadt in Czechoslovak and Czech Feature Film
Hana Nichtburgerová, M.A.: Richard Glazar in Terezín and in Treblinka
Tereza Málková: Girl᾿s Magazine Bonaco in Terezín
Session B: Reflecting upon the Holocaust
2:40pm-4:00pm (Trauttmansdorff Palace)
Prof. Joanna Dyduch, PhD., Institute of the Middle and Far East, Jagiellonian University, Kraków: Holocaust memory in contemporary Poland: Developments, disputes, and controversies
Dr. Avraham Weber, University of Marburg, Current changes in Holocaust research and its effects on international litigation
Dr. Olaf Glöckner, Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam: Between silent commemoration and "yolocaust": Debates on handling the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin
PhDr. et Mgr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Ph.D., Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague:
Joint-Reading of the names of Jewish and Romani Holocaust victims on Yom HaShoah: Contemporary polemic in the Czech Republic
PhDr. Zbyněk Tarant, Ph.D, Department of Middle East Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of West Bohemia, Plzeň: Holocaust appropriation during Covid-19 - A new challenge to the Holocaust memory?
Mgr. Jiří Smlsal, Institute of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University: Confiscations of Romani property during the Holocaust
Chair: Mgr. Jan Fingerland, Czech Radio
Discussant: Prof. Matthias Weller, The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn
SECCA – Special Envoys & Coordinators Combating Antisemitism Meeting
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Contact Details
Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue and Freedom of Religion
Ms. Petra Kaplanová,
Coordinator and Administrative Support
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Trauttmansdorff Palace
Loretánská Str. 6,
118 00 Praha 1
E-mail: da@mzv.cz
Tel.: +420 224 183 252
More info: https://www.mzv.cz/terezindeclaration
Robert Řehák, Ph.D.,
Special Envoy for Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue and Freedom of Religion
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
Trauttmansdorff Palace
Loretánská Str. 6,
118 00 Praha 1
E-mail: robert_rehak@mzv.cz
Tel.: +420 224 183 253
Address of the Venue
Czernin Palace, Loretánské náměstí 5, Prague
Trauttmansdorff Palace, Loretánská 6, Prague
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Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, June 26-30, 2009
Conference Proceedings
Publication Holocaust Era Assets (PDF, 7 MB)
Photogallery
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/first-day-of-holocaust-era-assets-conference-25796/
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/second-day-of-holocaust-era-assets-conference-25909/
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/second-day-of-holocaust-era-assets-conference---reception-26138/
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/third-day-of-holocaust-era-assets-conference-26323/
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/third-day-of-holocaust-era-assets-conference---reception-26450/
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/fourth-day-of-holocaust-era-assets-conference-26539/
http://www.eu2009.cz/en/media-service/photo-gallery/fifth-day-of-holocaust-era-conference--26659/
More info
http://holocausteraassets.eu/
Important decisions in connection with the Terezín Declaration Conference - Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act Report
https://www.state.gov/reports/just-act-report-to-congress/
Pledges presented at the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, October 13, 2021
https://www.government.se/4ad3b7/contentassets/7d3985b4106c41e69d699719533f16c0/outcome-document---pledges-presented-at-the-malmo-international-forum-on-holocaust-remembrance-and-combating-antisemitism.pdf
EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life (2021-2030)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=COM:2021:615:FIN&pk_campaign=doc&pk_source=EUR-Lex&pk_medium=tw&pk_keyword=No2Antisemitism
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
Source:
https://www.mzv.cz/jnp/en/foreign_relations/terezin_declaration/index.html#:~:text=Nov%202%2D4%2C%202022&text=The%20main%20program%20of%20the,Council%20of%20the%20European%20Union