Ambassador April H. Foley

Remarks at Stephen Feinberg's Holocaust Teachers Seminar

December 9, 2008
International Law Enforcement Academy, Budapest

• Jó reggelt kívánok! Nagyon örülök, hogy itt vannak.

• I am delighted to welcome you to a fascinating seminar.

• We are all very fortunate to have with us today Mr. Stephen Feinberg from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Mr. Feinberg is one of the United States’ most highly regarded scholars on Holocaust education. He is a true expert, with nearly twenty years of experience in Holocaust education.

• Over the course of his career he has met with thousands of teachers like you.

• With Mr. Feinberg as your guide, you will revisit the darkest chapter in human history. You will explore ways to effectively discuss this subject with your students.

• Today’s seminar will give you some new tools to approach this subject in the classroom in a way that effectively engages your students.

• There is so much to learn from the Holocaust – so much that we cannot forget.

• As you consider how you will teach the Holocaust, please step back and think about the larger message.

• What is the overriding message of the Holocaust? What is the greatest lesson?

• I believe it is the message of tolerance. Tolerance for all people, regardless of their skin color or religion or ethnicity or gender or nationality or sexual orientation. Tolerance is the message.

• I urge you to be clear about the importance of tolerance.

• And I urge you to challenge your students to be accepting of all people and to reflect on how little things that they do or say can reflect prejudice.

• We know from the experience of the Holocaust that intolerance breeds hatred that can have dangerous consequences.

• Even today, examples of intolerance and hatred persist in the world despite the painful lessons of our past.

• Here in Hungary, recent attacks on minority populations and the emergence of extremist organizations remind us that there is still prejudice that must be overcome.

• America has had a troubled history on this issue. And we have learned that it is not an issue that ever goes away. We realize that we must fight for tolerance every day. To be effective, societies must wage an ongoing battle...day in and day out.

• We, too, know the pain of hatred and division and the high price of intolerance. We know that we are not immune to the forces of hatred.

• Far too often, minorities in America are discriminated against because of the color of their skin.

• An important American creed is that “All men are created equal.” We have struggled to live up to that standard throughout our history.

• It is a goal worth struggling to attain. Societies need to ensure that all its citizens are granted equal opportunity, that all its citizens share in the blessings of freedom, and that all citizens are free from discrimination and prejudice.

• In the United States, high school teachers use various techniques to teach their students about the Holocaust.

• In many high schools, students are asked to read The Diary of Anne Frank.

• Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who chronicled her experience during the Holocaust in a diary that was published after her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

• Her diary has since become one of the most widely acclaimed personal accounts of that tragic era.

• Anne Frank died at the age of 16, only days after her sister perished in the same concentration camp. Her mother died of starvation several months earlier.

• Despite all of the despicable acts of hatred that robbed Anne Frank of her childhood and ultimately led to her death, in her diary she wrote about the underlying goodness she saw in all people.

• In it, she wrote, “…in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

• Anne Frank’s words invoke a simple message of tolerance and understanding that we must carry forward with our children of today.

• As teachers, you are in the enviable position of being able to shape the future generation of Hungarians.

• The examples you set and the messages you deliver influence the way your students think and how they perceive their world.

• As teachers you are not only educators, but are also role models and mentors to the children you interact with every day.

• This is why I ask you to think about what message you give to your students.

• If there is one lasting idea that you want your students to get from a discussion about the Holocaust, what would it be?

• I encourage you to ask your students what we can learn from our past and how we can prevent history from repeating itself.

• And I urge you to embrace the message of tolerance.

• Köszönöm megtisztelő figyelmüket.