25 January 2006 – Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto G. Romulo and Israeli Ambassador Yehoshua Sagi will open tomorrow, 26 January 2006, at the DFA Lobby the photo exhibition entitled “No Child's Play: Children in the Holocaust – Creativity and Play,” part of the worldwide observance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The traveling exhibition, which poignantly depicts the creativity of innocent children during the Holocaust, was brought to the Philippines through the efforts of the Israeli Embassy in Manila, and will run up to 2 February 2006.

The Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv is likewise spearheading efforts towards the Israeli Government’s official recognition of the important Philippine contribution in saving Jews during World War Two.

The worldwide observance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is pursuant to a Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2005.

On 31 October 2005, the UNGA adopted by consensus a draft Resolution remembering the Holocaust. The resolution, the first ever introduced by Israel at the UNGA, was co-sponsored by 104 other countries, including the Philippines.

The UNGA Resolution designated 27 January – the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp – as the annual International Day of Commemoration to honor Holocaust victims.

The Resolution also condemned “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur, and bid the countries of the world to include the issue of the Holocaust in their school curriculums and research programs, condemned all denial of the Holocaust, and called on the UN Secretary General to establish a special UN program entitled “The UN and the Holocaust”, for which $500,000 was budgeted.

The Resolution likewise commended those countries which are engaged in preserving the sites of concentration camps and extermination camps, and determined that the Holocaust – in which one-third of the Jewish people was annihilated – will constitute an eternal warning to the peoples of the world regarding the dangers of racism and bigotry.  END
  
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