Europe must inculcate in its children a duty of remembrance

[18 OCT 2002] Addressing ministers of education meeting in Strasbourg today, Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer said that member states had to inform young persons, those who would in future carry the burdens of state, about crimes against humanity.

We had failed to take account of the warning of the Shoah, he added. The evil of which humanity was capable was not new and had not been eradicated. This was the message to be transmitted, the meaning to be ascribed to the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and of Prevention of Crimes against Humanity, which we sought to commemorate each year in our schools.

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