ITF Chair Ambassador Karel de Beer's Blog: New Post

Ambassador Karel de Beer, ITF Chair, writes a blog to share the work and activities of the Chairmanship.  To read his newest post, please click below.

13 October 2011

The last weeks before the Plenary are full with conference calls with the Executive Secretary, Heads of Delegation and a number of visits. One that I have been looking forward to was my visit to Ukraine early October.

On October 3, I attended with the Executive Secretary the commemoration event of Babi Yar in Kiev, Ukraine. 70 years ago almost 34,000 Jews were murdered and thrown in a small gully close to the city center of Kiev. I was deeply moved by the respectful, impressive way that the Babi Yar mass murder is commemorated in Kiev. It was also a reassurance of the importance and the relevance of commemorating the Holocaust and educating our youngsters about it.

For many years, there was hardly any attention on the Holocaust in general and Babi Yar in particular in Ukraine, despite the famous poem of Jevtoesjenko and Shostakovitch' 13th symphony.  Until independence it was difficult for Ukraine to start a process with the aim to cope with its own history. Such a process was blocked in many countries of the former Soviet Union. Fortunately this has changed. The start of the construction of a Babi Yar museum illustrates this.

During this ceremony, which also was attended by my US colleague Douglas Davidson, the Government of Israel was present with 4 representatives, a gesture greatly appreciated by the Ukrainian Jewish community.

Together with the Israeli Minister Eidelman I gave a speech at the first ever Conference of Ukrainian Graduates of the Yad Vashem course. It was an example of how ITF and Ukraine are already working together. At the meeting I experienced again how important the role of individuals is in the ITF. A very strong Ukrainian organizer with just as motivated teachers is an ideal combination in this field. Many compliments to both sides.

A closer involvement of Ukraine in the work of the ITF will be beneficial to both parties. My talks with the Jewish community and the government of Ukraine have convinced me that the cooperation with the ITF will be intensified in the years to come. There is a genuine interest in ITF's activities. I have invited the Minister of Foreign Affairs as my personal guest to the Plenary and I will visit the country again early 2012 to continue my talks on this issue.

After visiting Ukraine I travelled to Belgrade to discuss Serbia's application for full membership with Deputy Prime Minister Djelic, Minister of Labor and Social Policy Ljalic, and the whole Serbian ITF delegation. My interlocutors shared my view that full membership is not a goal in itself, but a step in a process towards the implementation of the Stockholm Declaration. From that perspective we discussed a number of steps Serbia could take.

I was impressed with my discussion with the ITF delegation: motivated, with lots of ideas and ready to participate fully in all the discussions of the Working Groups and Plenary. I also noticed that the remarks that have been made by member countries on the baseline study were received with a very positive attitude.

In the evening we had a working dinner at the Netherlands Ambassador's residence with many relevant participants.  To say that the discussion was lively would be an understatement!  All the issues of the ITF are alive and the participants were not shy to share their views with me and amongst themselves.

As in most "new" ITF member countries, the Holocaust is living history in Serbia. The turbulent 20th century history of Serbia has had its impact on diverging views on past and present. Diverging views on the past and present are not always easy to cope with. I believe that there is an important role for the ITF to assist countries in coping with its own history and reconciliation, a process that all of us have to get through.

With less than 7 weeks to go until our Plenary in The Hague, the pressure is increasing. Apart from logistical and organizational aspects of the conference and Plenary, most of my time goes into the preparations of the agenda of the Plenary.  Many delegates might have noticed and contributed to the discussions on, for example, the Multi-Year Work Plan. I can assure you that in the coming weeks many communications will follow.