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Monday,
January 19, 2009 – Novi Sad City Hall |
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Ceremony Granting Honorary Citizenship to Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Acceptance Speech by Dr. Zuroff |
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Mayor Pavlićić, members the city council, H.E. Ambassador of Israel
Artur Kol, His Grace Bishop Irinej, Chief Rabbi Yitshak Asiel,
President of the Jewish community Dr. Ana Frankel, distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great privilege to accept
the honorary citizenship of Novi Sad, a city with a long history
of over 300 years, a city of great political and cultural influence
which became known as “Srpska Atina” (The Athens of Serbia), a
city which before the Holocaust had a flourishing Jewish community
and continues to be the home of Serbia’s second-largest Jewish
community.
I do not view this honor as something personal. More than anything
else, I believe that it constitutes recognition of the importance
even today of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. It reinforces
the important principles that the passage of time in no way diminishes
the guilt of the perpetrators and that old age should not shield
merciless killers from being held accountable for their heinous crimes.
These principles were fostered and kept alive for decades by Simon
Wiesenthal, the man who became the symbol of quest for justice for
the victims of the Holocaust and whose name our institution proudly
bears.
But Simon Wiesenthal was not only a Nazi-hunter. More than anything
else, he was one of the unique individuals who survived the Nazi
concentration camps and instead of returning to his previous career
as an architect, chose to devote his life to the sacred mission of
preserving the memory of the Holocaust. His was a daunting task,
in a postwar world in which there was little willingness to even
listen to the survivors, let alone track down the killers and bring
them to justice. His dedication and perseverance to the causes of
memory, education and justice remain a strong inspiration.
Today, there is no longer a danger that the Holocaust is about to
be forgotten and much progress is being made in taking legal action
against those responsible of more recent cases of genocide and ethnic
cleansing. But unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult
to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice, primarily because of
a lack of political will. Surprisingly, even at this relatively late
date, it is not that hard to find the murderers and the evidence
against them, as it is to make sure that they are prosecuted and
punished for their crimes.
The most obvious example, is the case related to the mass murder
which took place here in Novi Sad 67 years ago, the famous "Razzia." Why
hasn't Sandor Kepiro been prosecuted and punished yet for his crimes?
Not because he is innocent!! He himself admits that he was here,
on that terrible day of January 23, 1942, as an officer of the occupying
Hungarian forces. And we all know that it was they who carried out
the mass murder of innocent Jewish, Serb, and Gypsy residents of
Novi Sad!! Kepiro is still living unpunished in Budapest because
there is no political will in Hungary to bring him to trial and without
political will there cannot be any justice.
The mission of those seeking to bring the Nazis and their collaborators
to justice is often quite difficult. Personally, I have often encountered
the hatred of those who would seek to defend and protect them, and
there are various dangers and many frustrations. And that is why
the decision of the Novi Sad City Council and today's ceremony mean
so much to me. My hope is, that their message about the importance
of justice for the victims of the Holocaust will be heard loud and
clear, especially in Hungary, and throughout the world.
From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of my family in Israel
who unfortunately could not join us here today-Hvala Novi Sad.
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