Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches 5 In 1953, the State of Israel established Yad Vashem to commemorate, document, research, and convey the story of the Holocaust. It is a story that commences with the vibrancy of Jewish life in Europe until the Nazi conquest. The story then descends into systematic mass annihilation. Yet it also contains the struggle to survive and to sustain the values and enterprise of the Jewish individual. And there are invaluable chapters of fighting and resistance as well. But at the end, the outcome Death. “Darkness on the face of the abyss” ( Genesis 1:2). There is neither comfort nor meaning to be found in the deaths of all the victims unless: We assume, with holy awe, the historic responsibility of gathering from among the cupboards and drawers those letters and artifacts, the creative spirit, that express the identity of the victims, created in God’s image. We do so in order to retrieve the image of their faces, to record their names in a ledger. We raise generations of educators who will guide us how to study the Holocaust, and learn from it. And from all this We establish a yad va-shem , which offers a form and a forum to chronicle the rupture and eclipse. In which the Murderer murdered, the Victim struggled to survive humanely, the Neighbor looked on silently, and only the very Few arose to offer rescue. These were the scant rescuers among the nations who risked their lives and, at times, those of their dear ones, to ensure that amid the oppressive gloom a few rays of light might shine forth. They are the Righteous Among the Nations, outstanding individuals in whose honor a new concept in human civilization was coined. Among them are members of the Spanish people. We remember them, salute them, and express our deepest appreciation for their actions. Avner Shalev, on behalf of Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum — Prince of Asturias Award for Concord 2007 Avner Shalev has been President of Yad Vashem since 1993. — Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord on 26/10/2007.