Opening ceremony
Creator(s)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Scope and Content
People mingling, music in background. Conference preparations. 01:11:07 Miles Lerman introduces the International Liberators Conference. Explains what the conference will consist of. He explains that he was a Polish partisan and on his return to his hometown; only 11 of the original 16,000 Jews survived. Every survivor has a similar tale of misery. 01:18:11 Rabbi Nadich prays. (visually fuzzy) 01:21:15 Elliot Abrams, U.S. Dept of State introduces next speaker, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Secretary of State. Discusses the difficulty of such a history and how to remember it. 01:29:25 Elie Wiesel is introduced. 01:31:40 Wiesel starts. Discusses a bond established between people here, "we became each other's witnesses." Describes liberation and the liberators' reaction; what the liberators meant to the survivors - they were heroes and idols. Talks about the US Holocaust Memorial Council (of whom he is the chairman); Holocaust denial; the unity of all the Allies and their battle against Nazism. 01:47:43 Speaks in French. The liberators stopped the process of killing mankind. 01:51:00 Speaks in English again, talks of telling the tale yet there seems to still be a threat. 01:53:30 Dedicating oneself (liberators and survivors) to preventing earth from becoming a prison again. Raising ones voice against hate, forgetfulness, war - because who will if we don't. Testifying together is why we are here. 01:57:56 Introduction of all the representatives of delegations at conference.
Note(s)
1" master video reel stored with USHMM Institutional Records in the USHMM Archives.
The International Liberators Conference took place at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. from October 26-28, 1981. The conference was sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. A publication titled "The Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps 1945" (1987) summarizes the testimonies.
Subjects
- STATE DEPARTMENT (U.S.)
- RABBIS
- PARTISANS
- CONFERENCE (LIBERATORS, 1981)
- JEWS
- LIBERATORS
- SURVIVORS (JEWISH)
Places
- Washington, DC, United States
Genre
- Unedited.
- Film