20 January 2010
Lo Tishkach is part of an international initiative that has launched an appeal to the German government to assist in the protection of Holocaust mass grave sites across Eastern Europe. At a press conference held at the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) on January 20, Philip Carmel, Executive Director of the Lo Tishkach Foundation, stressed the need to identify and mark all Jewish burial sites before they are completely lost.
“The physical identification on site of Jewish cemeteries and mass graves,” he said, “is the best protection against Holocaust denial.”
Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s Director of International Jewish Affairs, urged the establishment of a task force led by the German government to protect and preserve Jewish mass grave sites in Eastern Europe. This work would be undertaken under the auspices of the German War Graves Commission. Reinhard Führer, President of the German War Graves Commission, pledged support for the initiative if mandated to do so by the German government.
The press conference also heard from Father Patrick Desbois, President of Yahad in Unum, who has gathered much new evidence on the state of Holocaust mass graves during his investigations in Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe. Father Desbois further pointed out the need to urgently cover open sites where bones have been exposed. Philip Carmel praised Father Desbois’s work as a key factor in placing the issue of the protection of Holocaust mass grave sites on to the international agenda.
Also present at the event, Rabbi Pinhas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow and Acting President of the Conference of European Rabbis, and Rabbi Yaacov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, outlined the difficulties faced by local Jewish communities in addressing the issue.
Support for the initiative also came from Ambassador Christian Kennedy, US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues; Kathrin Meyer, Executive Secretary of the International Holocaust Task Force; and from Jiri Cistecky, head of the Prague-based Shoah Legacy Foundation.
Following the press conference, a meeting was held between Father Desbois and Philip Carmel at which Lo Tishkach and Yahad in Unum agreed to co-ordinate work in Eastern Europe to assist the urgent need to protect mass grave sites.
