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Stockholm Declaration

“We empathize with the victims suffering and draw inspiration from their struggle. Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.”

Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust

27-29 JANUARY 2000
Stockholm, Sweden

In 2000, between 27-29 January, an International Forum was convened in Stockholm by former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, where representatives of 46 governments including 23 Heads of State or Prime Ministers and 14 Deputy Prime Ministers or Ministers, met in order to discuss the importance of Holocaust education, remembrance and research. The meeting and its deliberations resulted in the Stockholm Declaration on the Holocaust.

International organisations, such as the United Nations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Council of Europe, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) committed to the Stockholm Declaration and made Holocaust Remembrance part of their core mission.

In many countries, the Declaration contributed to the public debate on their national history and the role they played in the Holocaust. Questions, previously considered taboo, started to be asked and many countries reopened the pages of history, reviewed the facts and acknowledged what happened during the war. As a consequence, they decided to learn from the past pledged to never allow such atrocities to happen again.

The World Holocaust Forum Foundation joined the International Forum in pledging to remember the victims of Nazi persecution, contribute to the education of the Holocaust, fight Holocaust denial and revisionism, combat any form of antisemitism, and ensure that Jewish communities continue to have a safe future in Europe.

Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust

We, High Representatives of Governments at the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, declare that:

01.

The Holocaust (Shoah) fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilization. The unprecedented character of the Holocaust will always hold universal meaning. After half a century, it remains an event close enough in time that survivors can still bear witness to the horrors that engulfed the Jewish people. The terrible suffering of the many millions of other victims of the Nazis has left an indelible scar across Europe as well.

02.

The magnitude of the Holocaust, planned and carried out by the Nazis, must be forever seared in our collective memory. The selfless sacrifices of those who defied the Nazis, and sometimes gave their own lives to protect or rescue the Holocausts victims, must also be inscribed in our hearts. The depths of that horror, and the heights of their heroism, can be touchstones in our understanding of the human capacity for evil and for good.

03.

With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils. Together we must uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it. We must strengthen the moral commitment of our peoples, and the political commitment of our governments, to ensure that future generations can understand the causes of the Holocaust and reflect upon its consequences.

04.

We pledge to strengthen our efforts to promote education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust, both in those of our countries that have already done much and those that choose to join this effort.

05.

We share a commitment to encourage the study of the Holocaust in all its dimensions. We will promote education about the Holocaust in our schools and universities, in our communities and encourage it in other institutions.

06.

We share a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honour those who stood against it. We will encourage appropriate forms of Holocaust remembrance, including an annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance, in our countries.

07.

We share a commitment to throw light on the still obscured shadows of the Holocaust. We will take all necessary steps to facilitate the opening of archives in order to ensure that all documents bearing on the Holocaust are available to researchers.

08.

It is appropriate that this, the first major international conference of the new millennium, declares its commitment to plant the seeds of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past. We empathize with the victims suffering and draw inspiration from their struggle. Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.

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