ANNUAL REPORT 2010 The Aladdin Project ... - Projet ALADIN

ANNUAL REPORT 2010

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ANNUAL REPORT 2010

The Aladdin Project 

The Aladdin Project’s goal is to promote harmonious intercultural relations, particularly among 

Jews and Muslims, through dialogue, mutual respect, education and knowledge of History. Through 

its initiatives, it strives to reject denial and trivialization of the Holocaust, competing memories, anti- 

Semitism and all forms of racism, discrimination and exclusion. 

Patrons 

Presidents 

Abdoualye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal 

Jacques Chirac, former President of the French Republic 

HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan 

Gerhard Schroeder, Former Chancellor of Germany 

Sheikha Haya Al-Khalifa of Bahrain 

Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, Former President of Mauritania 

Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the Aladdin Project (NGO) 

David de Rothschild, President of the Aladdin Project Fund 

5

Table Of Contents 

President’s Letter 

Executive Director’s Message 

Year in Review 

• Raising awareness: Holocaust-related conferences in the 

Muslim world 

• Reaching a broad audience: Use of the Internet, cinema and 

television to disseminate knowledge 

• Reversing the trend: Countering denial and trivialization 

• Educating the young: The past, a bridge to the future 

• Media monitoring: Exposing purveyors of hate, encouraging 

voices of reason 

• Finding partners: Development of our network 

Looking ahead 

Governance 

Financial Statements 

Recognition 

Annexes 

page 7 

page 9 

page 11 

page 12 

page 16 

page 21 

page 25 

page 28 

page 29 

page 33 

page 36 

page 39 

page 41 

page 42

President’s Letter 

Presenting this first Annual Report 2010 is an emotional moment for me. Indeed, the Aladdin 

Project, born under the auspices of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and independent 

since late 2009, is a bold initiative: that of embarking on a long but absolutely necessary journey on 

an almost unbeaten track, fraught with risks, with no guarantee of success. 

The field? 

The Arab-Muslim world, a universe into which I had not previously ventured. 

The goal? 

To pass on the history of the Holocaust with rigor, refusing all denials, amalgams and trivializations, 

while respecting the memory of others. To reconnect the thread of coexistence between Muslims 

and Jews by teaching the centuries-long history, happy and violent, of their past relationships. Finally, 

to promote the values of mutual respect and dignity, opposing anti-Semitism, xenophobia and all 

forms of racism. 

The method? 

Passing on knowledge of history and cultures to those who have no access to them. 

The means were self-evident: books, the Internet, art, meetings, discussions ... here ... there ... in the 

languages of those to whom we were reaching out. To this general framework, we had to add other 

key elements: finding enlightened partners among Muslims, Jews and others, attached to the same 

values and goals; and working with a competent team with diverse skills and cultures. And all this 

without complacence, without looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, but with lucidity and 

by staying on course. 

Presenting this first report is, I repeat, very emotional, because I think our approach has been 

vindicated. I do not mean, of course, that in a year and a half, we have managed to achieve all the 

goals I have outlined, but because the various projects that we have completed and are briefly 

described in the following pages, represent the first successful steps in a medium and long-term 

strategy. 

We have passed on, and we have received. 

We invited our interlocutors to come to us, and we went to them. 

We talked about books that speak of places, and we showed these places. 

We spoke the language of those we addressed, and they listened to us. 

We welcomed debate and did not shy away from confrontation: and every time we profited by 

learning how best to convey what we wanted to share. 

We thus established trust and partnership with more and more people, from all cultures and 

different countries. 

7 

© Agnès Anne

8 

With this confidence, this common conviction that we must act in the name of truth and justice, 

public and private institutions, intellectuals, politicians, men of faith, teachers and students came in 

ever increasing numbers, often with great courage, to join us or to encourage us. Their names are on 

the pages of this report or on our website. Today, in fact, the Aladdin Project is cited as an example 

in many national and international forums because of the bold, novel actions we are undertaking. 

Already affiliate organizations are being set up in the United States, Belgium, Spain, and Turkey by 

those who wish to expand and broaden our actions and their impact. We have also been asked to 

carry out projects in France and Europe, and to partner with others in the United Kingdom and the 

United States: more about this in the following pages. 

To all of them, I want to say thank you. 

I also want to thank all members of our Board and all the different personalities who sit on the 

committees that nourish our efforts with their expert advice and sharp reflections. They have been 

indispensable to the success of our initiatives. And I am pleased that I have succeeded in bringing 

together an equal number of women and men, all of them of great quality. 

Our thanks also go to the French Government, and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for 

their support, and to UNESCO and in particular its Director General, Irena Bokova, for the trust 

they have placed in us. 

Finally, I wish to thank our talented Executive Director, Abe Radkin, and his (too) small team, as well 

as my friends and volunteers, who have implemented the projects that were entrusted to them with 

such skill and dedication. 

A note of concern: we have so far relied first and foremost on the generosity of several private 

foundations, particularly the French Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and the Edmond J. 

Safra Philanthropic Foundation, but we need more financial resources to allow us to implement the 

important projects that have been proposed. 

I must also point out that so far we have begun to pass on the knowledge of Judaism, its history 

and culture to the Arab and Muslim world because a state, Iran, and some extremist fringe in other 

countries, poison public opinion with their denial and anti-Semitic propaganda, the principal aim 

being to delegitimize the State of Israel, but also going as far as incitement to murder. We will, of 

course, continue. But in a world where ignorance is combined with Islamophobia, it is also necessary 

to pass on the knowledge of Islam, Muslim cultures and civilizations, and the history of countries that 

have a Muslim majority population. We have already begun to do so by explaining the fundamentals 

of Islam on our website. We do not seek here a cosmetic balance or a trivial reciprocity; we simply 

know that for dialogue, understanding and respect to take root, everyone must know the other in 

its truth and its own history. 

I hope that reading our first annual report will give readers the desire to join us and help us... And 

if some of the projects completed or in progress give you new ideas, please share them with us. 

Anne-Marie Revcolevschi

The Year that Showed the Way 

In many ways, 2010 was a decisive year for the Aladdin Project. Having experienced initial success 

the previous year with a high-profile launch conference and statements of support from prominent 

figures in the Muslim world, we were now stepping into unchartered territory by organizing ten 

Holocaust-related conferences across the Middle East and North Africa. In the early days of 2010, 

questions abounded: Would a virulent backlash dissuade Arab and Muslim personalities from 

cooperating with the Aladdin Project and “burn” it? How many books would be downloaded by 

Arab and Persian readers? How would Iranians react to Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah? And what if the 

Muslim personalities and leaders didn’t show up for the visit to Auschwitz? 

We now know the answers to all these questions and you will find them on the pages of this report. 

They show that in the modern world of globalized communications a young organization with a 

small but highly motivated staff and a meagre budget can make a serious difference, if it has original 

ideas and connects the right dots. On the basis of these results, and judging by the growing number 

of proposals for cooperation we receive from individuals, institutions, international organizations and 

governments, I can safely say that the Aladdin Project has established itself as a credible platform 

and a facilitator of intercultural exchange and cooperation, particularly between Jews and Muslims. 

All this would not have been possible, however, without the courage and commitment of our friends 

and partners across the Muslim world. We are also indebted to the generosity of our donors and 

the trust of our institutional partners, some of which, like the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 

UNESCO and the City of Paris, took part in funding our joint activities, thus helping us implement 

projects that required far greater financial resources than that reflected on our balance sheet. 

These partners were actively involved in two projects that bore results in the early months of 2011: 

an international delegation’s visit to Auschwitz and the telecast of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah in the 

Muslim world. We have decided to include them in this annual report, because in both cases the 

bulk of the preparations were undertaken in 2010. 

As in any initiative that seeks to change deeply entrenched perceptions, our vision of a world free 

of the mistrust and the stereotypes that poison Jewish-Muslim relations today can only be realized 

in the long term, but 2010 showed the scope of the achievable. In January 2010, the main challenge 

was to find the right way. Now, with a number of innovative projects in the pipeline, it’s about finding 

the means. That, in itself, is an important step forward. 

Abe Radkin • Executive Director 

9

YEAR IN REVIEW

12 

Raising awareness: Holocaust-related 

conferences in the Muslim world 

In January and February 2010, the Aladdin 

Project, in partnership with the French Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs, organized a series of public 

lectures on the Holocaust in the Middle East 

and North Africa with several objectives: Firstly, 

familiarize a broader public in Muslim-majority 

societies with Holocaust history. Secondly, 

encourage face-to-face dialogue and discussion 

between Jews and Muslims, particularly in 

places where once-thriving Jewish communities 

have all but disappeared whereas anti-Semitic 

stereotypes abound, and thirdly, create a 

network of intellectuals, academics and young 

people in each city. 

The events, entitled “Reading Primo Levi,” 

focused on the Arabic, Turkish and Persian 

translations of the Italian author and survivor’s 

book, If This Is a Man, and took place in Cairo, 

Tunis, Rabat, Casablanca, Istanbul, Amman, 

Baghdad, Erbil, Nazareth and Jerusalem on 

or around January 27, the anniversary of the 

liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, designated 

by the United Nations General Assembly as 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

Prior to the events, certain diplomats and 

experts had expressed serious misgivings, 

given the long-standing taboo surrounding the 

Holocaust across the Arab world, where for long 

decades it has often been denied, minimized or 

perceived as a “pretext” for the creation of the 

State of Israel. Complicating the situation was 

the heightened state of tension in the region in 

the aftermath of the Israeli military operations 

in Gaza. 

Despite the dire predictions, however, the 

conferences took place as planned and reached 

their objectives: breaking a taboo and explaining 

the specific nature of the Holocaust. About 1,500 

intellectuals, academics, historians, human rights 

activists, teachers and students participated in 

the ten events and listened to speeches by 50 

Holocaust historians, literary experts, Aladdin 

Project board members, as well as Arab and 

Muslim intellectuals and historians. At every 

conference, a couple of chapters of Primo 

Levi’s book were read out in Arabic (Turkish 

in Istanbul) and presentations were followed 

by debates where the panelists responded to 

questions ranging from Jewish resistance during 

the Holocaust to the position of Arab leaders 

and individuals during that period. Interestingly, 

there were few questions about the Arab-Israeli 

conflict. 

Three factors were crucial in assuring the 

successful outcome of the conferences: 

• The unambiguous and courageous stance 

of the Arab and Muslim panelists who vehemently 

denounced Holocaust denial and trivialization 

and rejected any parallels with other 

issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict; 

• The intellectual quality and clarity of the historians 

and literary experts who travelled to 

these cities from Europe; 

• And, of course, the diplomatic and logistical 

support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

and French cultural centres and institutes 

in the Middle East and North Africa.

Measuring impact 

Beyond the fulfilment of the three initial 

objectives of the project – familiarizing a broader 

Muslim public with Holocaust history, promoting 

a frank dialogue between Jews and Muslims, 

and creating a network of supporters – other 

outcomes of the events were as follows: 

• The relatively extensive media coverage of the 

events, particularly in the Arab world, was such 

that Aljazeera television devoted a live primetime 

debate program with three Arab commentators 

entitled, “Scope of the debate about the 

Aladdin Project.” As a result, while 1,500 people 

took part in the conferences, millions across the 

Muslim world were informed of them. 

• In one country – Morocco – the conference 

triggered a public debate after André Azoulay, in 

pointing out the courageous stance of Mohammed 

V against the Vichy regime’s impositions 

against his Jewish subjects, proposed that Holocaust 

education be introduced in the country’s 

universities. Several editorialists and NGOs, 

including the “Collectif Modernité et Démocratie” 

argued in favor of the proposal and also 

called for the history of the Moroccan Jewish 

community to be taught to young students. 

• The presence of many young bloggers and 

social activists resulted in a flurry of blogs, 

commentaries and debates on the Internet that 

continued for several weeks after the events. 

Some of the commentators repeated the old 

anti-Semitic and Holocaust denying clichés, but 

interestingly they were challenged by many 

of their peers who, while not well-informed, 

showed an interest in that period of history. 

• The events allowed the Aladdin Project to consolidate 

its network of intellectuals, historians, academics 

and young activists in different countries. 

Moreover, many of the Arab and Turkish 

panelists, having been among the first to support 

the Aladdin Project after its official launch in 

March 2009, became the key points of reference 

in their countries for our subsequent initiatives. 

• The conferences and the resulting media 

coverage increased our website’s traffic, with 

a 30% rise in the number of visitors to our 

multilingual website in February, while more 

“Reading Primo Levi” 

conferences in numbers: 

•10 cities, 14 events 

• 50 panelists from 12 nations 

• More than 1,500 people attended 

(including 10 parliamentarians and 

ministers,12 university presidents 

and deans, 19 ambassadors, 35 

bloggers) 

• 450 paperback copies of "If This Is 

a Man" were distributed or sold 

• The conferences were covered by: 

7 TV stations (including Aljazeera 

and France 24 Arabic) 

•15 radio stations 

• 6 news agencies 

• 85 newspaper articles 

• 32 blogs 

• 1,200 comments posted 

on Arabic-language websites 

13

14 

than 1,000 books were downloaded from the 

online library during the same month, higher 

than the other months of the year. 

• One initial concern – that an avalanche of media 

and political attacks in reaction to the events 

would make it impossible for Arab intellectuals 

and personalities to continue to work with the 

Aladdin Project - never materialized. Negative 

backlash was in fact restricted to Hamas, 

Hezbollah and a few ultranationalist fringe 

groups, who predictably labelled the Aladdin 

Project as a “Zionist” initiative and described 

the conferences as “an attempt to overshadow 

the Goldstone report”! 

• Many ideas and suggestions were put forward 

by the Muslim participants in the conferences. 

One general comment made in almost every 

meeting was that the younger generations 

were totally unaware of the centuries-long 

presence of Jewish communities in these 

countries. Once we recognized the need 

for accurate, easy-to-read history books 

on this subject, a new project was launched 

(See “Shared Histories” project on p. 26) 

To conclude, these conferences challenged a 

decades-long taboo surrounding the Holocaust 

in Arab societies, making it easier for intellectuals 

and young activists alike to express themselves 

openly on the subject and paving the way for 

other activities and initiatives of this nature 

in these countries. After the conferences, the 

Aladdin Project consolidated its network of 

contacts in each of the cities. Many of the Arab 

and Muslim personalities who took part in the 

conferences later accepted our invitation to visit 

Auschwitz on February 1, 2011. 

Others continued to work with us on the 

development of new projects and joined the 

different committees of the Aladdin Project. 

Panelists 

• Cairo 

Intellectuals Aly El-Samman and Tarek Heggy, 

Ambassador Jean-Felix Paganon, poetess Hala 

Aziz, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Serge Klarsfeld and 

professor of literature Philippe Mesnard 

• Tunis 

Jacques Andréani, Serge Klarsfeld, literary expert 

Anny Dayan-Rosenman, Ambassador Pierre Menat, 

historian Mohammed Fantar, commentator Ftouh 

Souhail 

• Istanbul 

Claude Lanzmann, intellectual Cengiz Aktar, 

historians Jean-François Forge, Ilber Ortayli, Nora 

Seni and Naim Güleryüz, Ambassador Bernard 

Emié, Israeli Consul General Moshe Kamhi 

• Baghdad 

Serge Klarsfeld, Abe Radkin, Ambassadors François 

Zimeray and Boris Boillon, Prof. Adel Al-Kayar 

• Erbil 

Serge Klarsfeld, historian Kamel Mudher, intellectual 

Hussein Sinjari, French Consul General Frederic Tissot 

• Rabat 

André Azoulay, philosopher Abdou Filali-Ansary, 

historian Jamaa Baida, intellectual Driss Khrouz, 

Ambassador Bruno Joubert, Anne-Marie 

Revcolevschi, historian Joel Kotek, literary expert 

Luba Jurgenson 

• Amman 

Serge Klarsfeld, Abe Radkin, intellectuals Amira 

Mostafa and Oreib Rantawi, Ambassador Corinne 

Breuzé, Israeli Ambassador Dani Nevo 

• Nazareth and Jerusalem 

Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Jean Mouttapa, historians 

François Lafon and Joseph Chetrit, Prof. Mohammed 

Dajani, intellectual Khalid Kasab, French Consul 

General Jean-Christian Coppin 

• Casablanca 

Joel Kotek, Luba Jurgenson, French Consul General 

Pierre Voillery

16 

Reaching a broad audience: 

Use of the Internet, cinema and 

television to disseminate knowledge 

To reach out to the unreachable, to allow vast 

swathes of populations in the Middle East, Asia 

and Africa who have no access to reliable information 

in their own mass media, particularly 

when the subject has anything to do with Jews 

or the Holocaust, is an important part of our 

mission. The increasing penetration of the Internet 

and satellite television in these societies is 

radically changing the picture, making it possible 

for the first time in generations to break the 

walls of censorship and disinformation. 

A multilingual website 

- www.projetaladin.org - 

From the very beginning, the Aladdin Project 

made the Internet a primary tool in its strategy 

by setting up a multilingual website in English, 

French, Arabic, Persian and Turkish that was 

launched in 2009 to offer simple and accurate 

information on the Holocaust and Jewish religion, 

history and culture, as well as a briefer on 

Islam and the history of Jewish-Muslim relations 

in different countries. 

In 2010, in response to readers’ comments 

and to facilitate access to the growing body of 

materials being constantly added, the multilingual 

website had to undergo a radical reorganization 

and was re-launched in September: 

a new homepage includes the presentation of 

our organization, activities and news with links to 

Aladdin Online Library and historical databases. 

As part of the Aladdin Project’s mission to promote 

mutual knowledge, a brief guide to the 

history, liturgy and practices of Islam for non- 

Muslims, validated by the eminent Moroccan 

scholar, Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, has been 

added to the website. 

A new feature of the website is "Different 

Voices, One Future,” a series of podcasts in 

which people with different cultural, social and 

religious perspectives in Europe, Africa and the 

Middle East express their views on anti-Semitism, 

racism and intercultural relations. A dozen 

of these podcasts are already online. 

After the posting of the new site in September, 

we received 934 new applications for subscription 

to our newsletter, which is now distributed 

to a list of 7,000 emails in French and 3,000 in 

English. In 2010, we received 683 messages of 

encouragement or queries from site visitors. 

The multilingual website received an average 

of 13,000 visits per month in 2010. Turkey, 

Iran, Morocco, Egypt, the United States, France, 

Canada, Algeria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia had 

the highest number of visitors during the year. 

67.81% were new visitors and 32.19% had 

visited the website before. The fact that almost 

a third of visitors returned to the website shows 

that the content was relevant to them. Visitors 

spent an average of 4 minutes 22 seconds to 

view the information.

The main sources of traffic were search engines 

(70.83%), referring sites (19.25%) and direct 

traffic (9.92%). This meant that the website 

was well referenced in search tools. The traffic 

from social networking websites – Facebook 

in particular – showed an upward trend in the 

closing months of the year, but much work 

remained to be done to raise the Aladdin 

Project’s profile in the social networking media. 

It must be added that no advertising campaign 

has yet been launched. 

Aladdin Online Library 

- wwww.aladdinlibrary.org - 

The Aladdin Project’s online library was the first 

digital library in Arabic and Persian that offered 

subscribers free access to e-books on the basis 

of special arrangements with publishers, fully 

respecting authors’ moral rights and royalties. 

By the end of 2010, 19,643 copies of Primo 

Levi’s If This Is a Man, Anne Frank’s Diary of a 

Young Girl, Shlomo Venezia’s Sonderkommando 

and Philippe Burrin’s Hitler and the Jews 

– all translated into Arabic and Persian for the 

first time by the Aladdin Project and published 

in partnership with Editions le Manuscrit, had 

been downloaded by subscribers around the 

world. The books are currently being offered by 

at least 40 online libraries in Persian and Arabic. 

In 2010, ten more books (five in Arabic, five 

in Persian) were translated: Shoah by Claude 

Lanzmann (Fayard), I Am the Last Jew – 

Aladdin Online Library 

www.aladdinlibrary.org 

Treblinka (1942-1943) by Chil Rajchman (Les 

Arènes), The Final Solution: A Genocide by 

Donald Bloxham (Oxford University Press) 

and The Holocaust: Impossible to Forget by 

Anne Grynberg (Gallimard), as well as the first 

volume of The destruction of European Jews by 

Raul Hilberg (Holmes & Meier). 

The books have been chosen by the Book Committee 

of the Aladdin Project, chaired by editor 

and publisher Jean Mouttapa. Other members 

of the committee include historians Henry 

Rousso and Joel Kotek, Lebanese author Djénane 

Kareh Tager, sociologist and scholar Joseph Maila, 

philosopher Jean-François Colosimo, who is also 

President of France’s National Centre for Books, 

and Moroccan author Rachid Benzine. 

The books will be added to the library in 2011 

once the long process of obtaining paper and 

digital rights from the publishers has been 

completed. The paperback editions will be 

launched at the National Library of France and 

the Frankfurt International Book Fair. 

The online library received an average of 2,300 

visits in 2010, the countries with the largest 

number of visitors being Egypt, Iran, Algeria, 

Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, 

Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Britain. 

87.02% were new visitors and 12.98% had 

visited the website before. The main sources of 

traffic were: 60.17% from referring sites, 31.26% 

from search engines and 8.57% direct traffic. 

The majority of visitors were directed from 

Facebook and other social networking websites. 

A Web site in 5 languages 

www.projetaladin.org 

17

18 

10 New books of the Aladdin Library : 

The Arabic version of books by Raul Hilberg, Anne Grynberg 

and Claude Lanzmann and the Persian version of books 

by Daniel Bloxham and Chil Rajchman

Cinema and television: 

Telecast of Claude 

Lanzmann’s Shoah 

subtitled in Persian, 

Turkish and Arabic 

The work that began in 2009 with translation 

of books expanded in 2010 to include cinema 

and television, media that exert a rapidly 

growing influence in the Arab and Muslim 

world, where satellite television stations have 

in recent years broken the traditional state 

monopoly over broadcasting. 

The Aladdin Project subtitled the film "Shoah" 

by Claude Lanzmann in its entirety (over 9 

hours and 30 minutes) in Arabic, Persian and 

Turkish. In September 2010, we acquired 

exclusive rights for the Arabic, Persian and 

Turkish versions of the film. We then entered 

protracted discussions with several television 

stations to have the film shown for audiences 

in Iran, Turkey and the Arab world. 

Shoah shown in Iran 

For Iran, we reached an agreement with Pars 

satellite channel broadcasting from Los Angeles, 

to show the entire film in one-hour segments 

starting on March 7, 2011. Pars TV was the first 

major Iranian satellite television broadcasting 

from abroad and is widely regarded as having a 

large audience inside the country. 

On March 7, 2011, Iranians were able to watch, 

26 years after its creation, "Shoah" subtitled in 

Farsi and telecast in Iran via the satellite channel 

Pars. Pars TV presenter Alireza Meybodi called 

the telecast of Shoah in Persian an "historic 

moment.” In his introduction prior to the start 

of the first episode, the presenter described 

Holocaust denial as “a scourge that has nothing 

to do with the great culture and civilization of 

Iran.” 

The launch was marked by a conference 

at UNESCO in Paris in the presence of its 

Director General, Irina Bokova, French Minister 

of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand, Aladdin Project 

president Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and Claude 

Lanzmann. 

More than four hundred personalities, 

intellectuals, writers, ambassadors, senior 

government officials, editors and journalists 

were present to watch live the first episode of 

the film subtitled in Farsi and broadcast in Iran. 

19

20 

The projection was followed by a panel 

discussion moderated by journalist Philippe 

Dessaint with Claude Lanzmann, Anne-Marie 

Revcolevschi, Iranian sociologist and writer 

Chahla Chafiq, Ambassador for Human Rights 

Francois Zimeray, Ladan Boroumand from the 

Foundation for Human Rights in Iran, historian 

Alexandre Adler and Iranian journalist and 

author, Nasser Etemadi. 

The Iranian panelists pointed out that in their 

view many in Iran would be interested to watch 

Impact of Shoah’s 

telecast in Iran: 

1. For the first time since 2006, when the 

Iranian President organized an “international 

conference” of Holocaust deniers in Tehran, 

the Iranian public had the possibility of 

watching exceptional testimonies on the 

facts of the Holocaust.. 

2. Pars TV received 900 phone calls and 2000 

emails from viewers in Iran after the broadcast 

of Shoah. 

3. All major Persian media outside Iran (with 

big audiences inside Iran) reported the 

event: Voice of America Farsi TV, BBC Persian, 

Deutsche Welle Persian, RFI Persian, Radio 

Liberty, Al-Arabiya Farsi. 

4. More than 300 articles and dispatches in 

state-run news agencies, newspapers and 

radio and television denounced the telecast 

as “Israeli propaganda” and attacked 

the Aladdin Project as “a Zionist entity.” The 

Islamic Republic usually maintains silence on 

such issues and its strong reaction showed 

that the telecast had an impact on certain 

sections of the population. 

5. Dozens of websites in Persian, representing a 

wide range of opinions, reported the event. 

6. "Shoah" being shown in Iran was covered in 

more than 300 articles in France and abroad. 

a film like Shoah, because since 2005 denial 

or trivialization of the Holocaust have been a 

recurring theme in the state-run press and 

media, at the same time arousing the curiosity 

and interest of those who have never had the 

possibility of watching exceptional testimonies 

on the facts of the Holocaust. The panelists’ 

viewpoint was later validated by television 

viewers’ comments reaching Pars TV, as well as 

the angry reaction of the Iranian government 

(see box). 

Shoah subtitled in Turkish 

In Turkey, Ibrahim Sahin, CEO of the country’s 

state television, TRT, accepted our request to 

telecast the full nine-and-a-half version of Shoah, 

subtitled in Turkish, in October 2011. 

The Aladdin Project organized the screening of 

Shoah subtitled in Turkish at Istanbul International 

Film Festival in the presence of Claude 

Lanzmann. In an exceptional arrangement, the 

full version of the film was screened on three 

occasions. The event was covered by leading 

Turkish newspapers including Hurriyet, Milliyet, 

Sabah and Radikal. At the beginning of the first 

screening, Lanzmann made a speech about the 

film and the next day he gave a two-hour "master 

class" before an audience of young directors 

and producers. The session was moderated by 

the star presenter for the Turkish channel 24. 

Turkish director Dervis Zaim told the Turkish 

press that watching Shoah in the 1980s had 

such a profound impact on him that he decided 

to become a director. 

Shoah in Arabic 

An agreement with the Cairo-based Egyptian 

TV channel, Al-Mehwar, to broadcast Shoah 

in July 2011 was postponed indefinitely after 

the political upheaval in the country. Several 

other Arabic television broadcasters have been 

contacted and one, the Dubai-based Al-Hurra 

TV, has accepted to broadcast the film. Talks are 

ongoing to organize a telecast in autumn 2011.

Reversing the trend: 

Countering denial and trivialization 

The core mission of the Aladdin Project has 

been, from its very inception, to promote 

awareness of Holocaust history in the Arab and 

Muslim world not only to counter denial and 

trivialization, but also to encourage a deeper 

understanding of the evils of fascist, anti-Semitic 

and racist ideologies and regimes. 

Since 2005, Iran alone has published more than 

330 virulently anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial 

books in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and other Muslim 

world languages. Egyptian, Lebanese (Hezbollah) 

and Syrian television stations, Jordanian 

bookshops, book fairs in different Middle Eastern 

capitals and many Arabic-language newspapers 

© Erez Lichtfeld 

continue to propagate anti-Semitism and deny, 

trivialize or invert the Holocaust. In addition to 

our other activities described elsewhere in this 

report, we worked on two specific actions in 

2010 to counter this trend: 

• Organize a high-profile visit to Auschwitz by 

an international delegation that would also 

include senior political, religious and civil society 

representatives from across the Muslim 

world (The visit itself took place on February 

1, 2011). 

• Bring to bear diplomatic pressure on governments 

that allow the distribution of Holocaust 

denial literature in book fairs, etc. 

21

22 

Visit to Auschwitz of an 

international delegation 


An unprecedented visit to Auschwitz by more 

than 200 leaders and personalities from the 

Middle East, Africa, Asia, America and Europe – 

the majority of whom came from Muslim nations 

– was intended to send a strong message: the 

Iranian President and other Holocaust deniers 

in the Muslim world do not speak in the name 

of all Muslims. Holocaust denial in the 21st 

century is intolerable and Muslims, like other 

members of the global community, have every 

right and duty to participate in its United 

Nations-designated commemoration. 

When the visit took place on February 1, at the 

joint invitation of the Aladdin Project, UNESCO 

and the City of Paris, the message could not 

have been clearer. On the eve of the visit, President 

Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Chairman of 

the Islamic Conference Organization, declared 

at a press conference hosted by Paris Mayor 

Bertrand Delanoe: “I cut short my participation 

at the African Summit to be with you on this 

historic visit, because the worst attitude is one 

of doing nothing and waiting, in the hope that 

things will sort themselves out.” 

The international delegation to Auschwitz was 

led by Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President 

of the Aladdin Project, David de Rothschild, 

President of the Aladdin Project Fund, Irina 

Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, and 

Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris. 

International dignitaries included Asha-Rose 

Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United 

Nations representing Ban Ki-moon, former 

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the 

former Presidents of Croatia, Mauritania and 

Benin, Stepjan Mesic, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall 

and Nicephore Soglo, and President of the 

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 

Mevlut Cavusoglu. Also present were special 

envoys and representatives of Heads of State and 

Government of Poland, France, Israel, USA, Russia, 

Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq and the mayors of 

Paris, Madrid, Bucharest, Erbil (Iraq), Rabat, Casablanca, 

Fez, Meknes (Morocco), Libreville (Gabon), 

Cotonou (Benin), Sarajevo, Ouagadougou 

(Burkina Faso) and Bamako (Mali). 

The delegation included political, religious and 

intellectual figures from Britain, France, Germany, 

Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, 

Palestine, Poland, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey 

and the United States. (See Annex for the full list.) 

After a tour of Birkenau extermination 

camp, along with ten survivors who came to 

share their experiences, delegation members 

gathered at the International Monument for an 

ecumenical ceremony of Jewish, Christian and 

Muslim prayers. The prayers were led by former 

Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Cardinal André 

Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, and Dr. Mustafa 

Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia. The visit came to 

a conclusion with a landmark speech by Samuel 

Pisar in the name of all the survivors. 

Many personalities who could not join the 

international delegation sent messages of 

solidarity, among them Prince Hassan of Jordan, 

the Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr. Ali Goma'a, the 

Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Dr. Ahmed Al- 

Tayeb, the Grand Mufti of the Caucasus Sheikh 

Allahshukur Pashazada, and the Mayor of Berlin 

Klaus Wowereit.

To conclude, the visit 

to Auschwitz has: 

• Sent a resounding message by Muslim leaders 

and personalities to Holocaust deniers in the 

Muslim world: Not in our name! 

• Provided an opportunity for a group of 

Muslim leaders and intellectuals to become 

acquainted with the specific nature of the 

Holocaust. All, in their own way and according 

to the specific condition in their societies, 

have reaffirmed their willingness to work 

with the Aladdin Project on these issues. 

• In countries like Turkey, significantly raised 

public awareness of the Holocaust as a result 

of extensive media coverage and articles by 

opinion makers. 

• Five years after the conference of Holocaust 

deniers in Tehran, created a new point of 

reference regarding Muslim attitudes towards 

the Holocaust. 

• Opened the door to numerous new 

opportunities for joint projects and initiatives 

with the Muslim and non-Muslim participants 

in the visit. 

Among the 19 proposals received from these 

personalities after the visit, one can cite the first 

that are being put into action: the suggestion 

by Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Mayor of Madrid, to 

co-organize a conference in autumn 2011 in 

Madrid to present the Aladdin Project and 

launch the "Spanish Friends of the Aladdin 

Project" in the context of a conference on 

the role of Spain during the Second World 

War and the history of the three cultures in 

that country, or the proposal by Enver Yucel, 

President of Bahcesehir Istanbul University, to 

host a conference in October 2011 on the role 

of German Jewish academics who took refuge 

in Turkey in the 1930s in the construction of 

modern universities in that country. 

International delegation’s 

visit to Auschwitz: 

What results? 


• In an important breakthrough, the visit and 

commemoration of Jewish victims of the 

Holocaust received the public blessing of 

four major figures in Sunni and Shiite worlds: 

the Grand Muftis of Egypt, Bosnia and the 

Caucasus, and the President of Al-Azhar 

University in Cairo. 

• 50 journalists were present in Auschwitz: 

more than 1,000 articles in the world press 

about the visit. 

• Turkey: 25 editorials and op-ed articles 

by participants in the visit. Sami Herman, 

President of Turkish Jewish Community, in 

letter to Aladdin Project President: “These 

articles have had an enormous effect of 

raising public awareness and educating the 

Turkish public about the Holocaust.” 

• Morocco: 30 newspaper articles quoting Moroccan 

personalities who took part in the visit. 

• President Wade and Mayors of four African 

cities (Libreville, Cotonou, Ouagadougou and 

Bamako) issued press releases about the 

visit to Auschwitz. Wade’s statement read on 

Dakar radio and TV. 

• Participants in the visit submitted to the 

Aladdin Project 19 proposals for joint projects 

and activities in their respective countries. 

• Examples of post-visit initiatives: Prof. 

Mohammed Dajani has started taking groups 

of students from Al-Quds University on visits 

to Yad Vashem. Ahmed Dizaei, President of 

Erbil University, addressed a conference of 

educators in Iraq about his visit. 

23

24 

Curbing Holocaust 

denial in book fairs 

The Aladdin Project regularly monitors the 

Middle East’s biggest book fairs – those of Cairo 

and Tehran – and draws up lists of anti-Semitic 

and Holocaust denial books on display. Other 

book fairs in the Middle East – including Beirut 

and Abu-Dhabi, which are rising in importance 

– also routinely display such books. 

We first approached the French ministries 

of Foreign Affairs and Culture with a draft 

resolution calling on all Member States of the 

Union for the Mediterranean to ban such books 

from their book fairs. 

We also presented the draft resolution to Euro- 

Mediterranean Ministers of Culture and the 

Euro-Mediterranean Ministers of Foreign Affairs. 

While European delegations and even some of 

the Arab delegations showed an interest in the 

subject, the resolution was derailed in the face 

of strong opposition by Syria. We continue to 

pursue this issue in contacts with governments 

and international organizations. 

In February 2010, on the sidelines of our 

conference in Cairo, which coincided with the 

Cairo International Book Fair, we raised the 

issue with the then Deputy Minister of Culture 

Hossam Nassar. We were informed that the 

government had taken precautions to ensure 

that such books as the Protocols or Mein Kampf 

would not be displayed at the fair. 

To verify, we visited the fair and discovered that, 

compared with 2009, the situation had indeed 

improved and only a few Islamist books that 

contained virulently anti-Semitic themes and 

materials were on display. But when we asked 

three different stall holders for the Protocols in 

Arabic, all of them were able to produce copies 

of the book instantly from under the counter. 

On our return to Paris, we raised the issue with 

officials of the Union for the Mediterranean, 

who promised to follow up. Soon afterwards, 

however, the UPM became effectively paralyzed 

as a result of political disagreements among 

Member States. 

With the changing political situation in Egypt, we 

continue to focus on this issue, working in liaison 

with the French government’s ambassador on 

anti-Semitism issues, Francois Zimeray, and the 

Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairin-Office 

on combating anti-Semitism, Andrew 

Baker.

Educating the young: 

The past, a bridge to the future 

While any result-oriented strategy that seeks 

to counter anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry and 

conflicts of memory must strike a balance 

between short-term priorities and long-term 

objectives, we are in no doubt that education 

and long-term changes in the perceptions of 

people are the only lasting solutions to these 

problems. 

That’s why education, transmission of 

knowledge and information in Arabic, Persian 

and Turkish on Jewish religion, culture and 

history and also about the centuries-long 

shared history of Jews and Muslims living 

together in different parts on the Muslim 

world, lie at the heart of the Aladdin Project. 

In 2010, we embarked on the following educational 

initiatives: 

• Four lectures by Holocaust historians for a 

total of 900 pupils studying in schools run 

by the French government in Morocco and 

Tunisia, 

• Production of a series of history books on 

Jewish-Muslim relations in 12 countries of 

Africa, Asia and Europe, 

• Discussions with London University for the 

launch of an online MA degree on Jewish- 

Muslim relations that would be available to 

students around the world. 

Teaching students in the 

Arab world about 

the Holocaust 

In February 2010, a series of lectures were given 

for high school students in Tunis and Casablanca 

by two historians, Serge Klarsfeld and Joel Kotek, 

professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 

and two literary experts, Anny Dayan-Rosenman 

and Luba Jurgenson, Senior Lecturers at University 

of Paris VII (Diderot) and IV (the Sorbonne) 

respectively. 

This pilot experiment allowed us to analyse the 

perception of high school students in these two 

cities towards the Jews in general and the Holocaust 

in particular and identify possible methods 

of training. Discussions with the teachers proved 

to be of great interest and highly informative. 

The objective of this pilot experiment was to 

acquire an understanding of the perceptions of 

Jews in general and the Holocaust in particular 

among high school students in the two cities and 

identify effective methods of educating students 

in this age group in Morocco and Tunisia about 

the Holocaust and Jewish-Muslim relations. 

Admittedly Arab students studying in French 

high schools in Tunis and Casablanca do not 

represent all the Tunisians and Moroccans belonging 

to the same age group, but the exchanges 

with the speakers proved to be lively and uninhibited, 

the young students showing a thirst for 

25

26 

“Shared Histories” authors: 

1. Morocco: 

Mohammed Kenbib, Professor and 

Director of Research at Mohamed V 

University in Rabat 

2. Tunisia: 

Abdelkrim Allaghi, Professor at the 

University of Tunis 

3. Algeria: 

Lucette Valensi, Professor at the EHESS 

4. Spain: 

Mercedes Garcia-Arenal, Director of 

Research CCHS-CSIC (Madrid) 

5. Egypt: 

Gudrun Kraemer, Program Director of 

Islamic Studies at the Free University 

of Berlin 

6. Syria-Lebanon: 

Tarif al-Khalidi, Professor at American 

University of Beirut (tbc) 

7. Israel-Palestine: 

Amnon Cohen, Professor Emeritus at 

the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

and Mohammed Dajani Daoudi, 

Professor at the University of Al-Quds 

8. Iraq: 

Orit Bashkin, professor 

at the University of Chicago 

9. Yemen: 

Yossi Tobi, Professor Emeritus 

at the University of Haifa 

10. Turkey: 

Gilles Veinstein, Professor 

at College de France 

11. Iran-Afghanistan: 

Darioush Shayegan, philosopher 

and author (Iran) 

12. India-Pakistan: 

Yulia Egorova, lecturer, 

University of Durham 

information. Students’ reactions to the lectures in 

both cities were broadly similar. Many showed a 

genuine curiosity about Holocaust history, especially 

when it touched their own country as was 

the case with the short-lived Nazi occupation of 

Tunisia and Vichy government pressures on the 

Moroccan ruler, Mohammed V. A short film by 

William Karel about Primo Levi was shown to 

complement the lectures. 

In the questions and answers sessions that followed, 

many students asked questions about 

the Holocaust, the relations between Jews and 

Muslims and the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the 

questions showed the students’ interest in these 

issues, they also revealed an almost total lack 

of knowledge of historical facts concerning that 

period of history. In discussions with the panelists 

after the lectures, teachers pointed out that the 

curricula included nothing about the centurieslong 

history of Jewish communities in these two 

countries. 

Collection of 12 books 

on the history of Jews 

in Muslim lands 

As mentioned before, many intellectuals and 

teachers we met in different Muslim countries 

underlined the need for educational books 

on the history of Jewish communities in these 

countries. In response, we launched the project 

“Shared Histories” in 2010 with the objective of 

producing a collection of books on the history of 

Jewish communities in 12 countries. The books 

will be in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, English and 

French. 

The books, primarily aimed at high school 

teachers and, more generally, a broad reading 

public, will be written in simple style. The 

collection will be available in digital form from the 

Aladdin Online Library and will be co-published 

in paperback with French publishers and editors 

recognized in the Arab-Muslim world, to ensure 

the widest possible distribution. The books are 

due to be published in 2012 and 2013.

A scientific committee composed of eminent 

historians and experts, chaired by Professor 

Abdou Filali-Ansary, oversees the production of 

this collection. Series director is historian Michel 

Abitbol. Committee members include: 

• Lucette Valensi, historian, director of education 

emeritus, EHESS 

• Gilles Veinstein, professor of Ottoman and 

Turkish History at the College de France 

• Kazdaghli Habib, Professor of Contemporary 

History, University of Tunis-Manouba 

• Tudor Parfitt, professor of Modern Jewish 

Studies, SOAS, University of London 

• Darioush Shayegan, Iranian philosopher and 

writer 

• Ilber Ortayli, historian, President of the Topkapi 

Museum in Istanbul 

As part of our education strategy, the production 

of these books will go hand in hand with our 

efforts to work with educational authorities 

in countries where large Jewish communities 

once existed (or continue to exist) to study 

the modalities of including the history of these 

communities in school curriculum. The French 

government has already indicated its willingness 

to work with us on this project, for which we 

will also be seeking UNESCO’s partnership 

as the UN agency entrusted with the task of 

implementing General Assembly Resolution A/ 

Res./53/243 on the culture of peace education. 

The resolution encourages Member States to 

educate the younger generations about the 

ethnic and religious minorities in their respective 

countries. Despite the current turmoil in parts 

of the Arab world, we hope to be able, in 

coordination with the educational authorities of 

these countries, to make a contribution over the 

next few years to the introduction of the history 

of these Jewish minorities in the curricula and 

complement it with teacher training courses. 

Online degree from London 

University on Jewish-Muslim 

relations 

To encourage the younger generations in the 

Arab world, in Israel, in Iran, in Turkey and 

elsewhere, to learn more about the long history 

of Jewish-Muslim relations, the Aladdin Project 

entered discussions with leaders of the London 

University’s School of Oriental and African 

Studies (SOAS) to start an online Master of Arts 

degree course on the history of Jewish-Muslim 

relations. 

The course is particularly designed for students 

of political and social sciences, but suitable also for 

professionals whose work involves or is affected 

by intercultural and Jewish-Muslim relations 

or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Following initial 

discussions, Aladdin Project president Anne- 

Marie Revcolevschi; Prof. Abdou Filali-Ansary, 

president of our Academic Committee, and 

Executive Director Abe Radkin held meetings in 

London in November 2010 with SOAS Director 

Prof. Paul Webley and Prof. Tudor Parfitt to launch 

this course and ultimately set up an Aladdin 

Centre for Jewish-Muslim Studies. The Dean, Dr. 

Anne Pauwels, is leading the preparatory stages 

and feasibility studies of the project. 

The choice of SOAS for the program was based 

on its significant experience with and expertise in 

the development of distance learning programs, 

as well as the various disciplines of Jewish studies 

and Islamic studies. 

27

28 

Media monitoring: Exposing purveyors 

of hate, encouraging voices of reason 

We continue on a regular basis our monitoring 

of the Arabic and Persian-language media to 

focus attention not only on examples of Holocaust 

denial and anti-Semitism, but also highlight 

articles or reports that seek to encourage better 

relations and understanding among Muslims 

and Jews. We give priority to the translation of 

articles and statements that have policy consequences 

or exert an influence on a large section 

of the population, and we try to take appropriate 

action where possible. Here are examples 

of our monitoring and consequent actions in 

2010: 

• David de Rothschild, President of the French 

Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and 

President of the Aladdin Project Fund, sent 

a letter to Education Minister of the UAE 

through Alain Azouaou, Ambassador of France 

to the UAE, following an announcement in 

January 2010 in the daily Al-Ittihad that the 

government of UAE had formally banned the 

use of Elie Wiesel’s Night in private schools. 

The Embassy of France in Abu Dhabi continues 

to follow up the case with the objective 

of organizing, in 2011, a conference for Elie 

Wiesel in Abu-Dhabi in partnership with the 

Aladdin Project. 

• In April 2010, following the publication of an 

advertisement on the website of the Muslim 

Brotherhood in Egypt for an exhibition 

entitled "Palestinian Holocaust" in a theatre 

in Cairo, we contacted the Egyptian Ambassador 

in Paris and the Egyptian Ministry of 

Culture, pointing out that the exhibition 

made an unacceptable amalgam between the 

Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

The Deputy Minister of Culture of Egypt subsequently 

informed us that his government 

refused to authorize the exhibition and that it 

did not take place. 

• On December 12, 2010, Jordanian journalist 

Riad Mansour "revealed" in the Arabic daily 

Ad-Dustour that some private schools in 

Jordan were using a history textbook which 

contained a chapter on The Diary of Anne 

Frank and the history of the Holocaust. The 

case immediately became political and the 

government banned the use of this book in 

schools. We alerted the Anne Frank Foundation 

and sought the intervention of Jordan's 

Ambassador in Paris, Ms. Dina Kawar, and the 

Ambassador of France to Amman, Ms. Corinne 

Breuzé. 

• After compiling a detailed list of more than 

160 anti-Semitic books on display at Tehran International 

Book Fair in May 2010, we sent the 

list to the United Nations Secretary General 

and other international organizations and our 

press release was covered in the American, 

European and Israeli press.

Finding partners: development of our network 

The year 2010 was a year of consolidation of our 

network and establishment of durable working 

relationships with universities, academic centres 

and NGOs that share our interests and goals. The 

conferences in the ten cities of the Middle East 

and North Africa provided a unique opportunity 

to develop our ties with a large spectrum of 

intellectuals, academics, human and civil rights 

activists and NGOs in each country. We also 

established formal ties with supranational 

institutions such as the International Task Force 

for Holocaust Education and the Anna Lindh 

Foundation and participated in their conferences 

and forums. 

Holocaust Education 

International Task Force (ITF): 

The Aladdin Project became a member of the 

"Task Force for International Cooperation on 

Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research" 

(ITF) in 2010. Abe Radkin represented 

the Aladdin Project at the ITF conference in 

Jerusalem in June 2010. ITF is an intergovernmental 

body whose purpose is to place political 

and social leaders' support behind the 

need for Holocaust education, remembrance, 

and research both nationally and internationally. 

The Task Force currently has 28 Member States. 

The Aladdin Project seeks to encourage governments 

in the Arab and Muslim world to join the 

ITF, where Turkey currently has observer status. 

Seminar on Holocaust education 

in Brussels: 

The European Centre for the Study of Racism 

(CEESAG), a Brussels-based organization, 

invited representatives of the Aladdin Project to 

present their experiences in raising Holocaust 

awareness in non-Western populations at a 

seminar entitled, “Challenges of Holocaust 

education.” The meeting took place at the 

Belgian Parliament on March 26, 2010. 

European Muslims' Perceptions 

of the Holocaust: 

Organized by the French research institute 

CNRS and the Berlin-based International Institute 

for Education and Research on Anti-Semitism, 

the two-day international conference in 

Paris focused on how Muslims in Europe view 

the Holocaust and reviewed approaches to 

Holocaust education for European Muslims. Jean 

Mouttapa, chairman of the Book Committee, 

described how the lessons drawn from the activities 

of the Aladdin Project could be applied to 

the European context to familiarize young Muslims 

in Europe with the history of the Holocaust. 

Intercultural dialogue 

Anna Lindh Forum: 

The forum brought together over 500 representatives 

of NGOs and civil society from 43 

countries in Barcelona in March 2010 to discuss 

and develop actions to promote dialogue, 

mutual understanding and peace. The organizers 

of the forum, a gathering of civil society actors 

to promote intercultural action throughout the 

Mediterranean region, included the presentation 

of the Aladdin Project in the program. Wellknown 

French journalist Caroline Fourest, who 

chaired the workshop on intercultural dialogue, 

praised the Aladdin Project before giving the 

29

30 

floor to the representative of the organization, 

Abe Radkin, to present the project and answer 

the questions of participants from Jordan, Egypt, 

UAE, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia. Many of them 

asked to be kept informed of the activities of 

the Aladdin Project. 

Meeting at UNESCO: 

The Aladdin Project was presented in September 

to a delegation of Israeli and Palestinian 

teenagers, aged 15 to 18, from Ramallah, Gaza, 

Lod, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, who were visiting 

Paris at the invitation of the French Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs to present their peace plan 

at UNESCO. The visit was initiated by Valerie 

Hoffenberg, France’s special representative for 

the economic and cultural dimensions of the 

Middle East peace process, and an Israeli NGO, 

"Kids Creating Peace". The teenagers and their 

teachers showed keen interest and the young 

Palestinians took copies of the Diary of Anne 

Frank in Arabic to take home. 

Meeting in Paris City Hall: 

A meeting in September 2010 at Paris City Hall, 

chaired by First Deputy Mayor of Paris Anne 

Hidalgo, discussed the possible activities that the 

Aladdin Project could undertake to promote 

intercultural ties in France. Participants included 

Deputy Mayor of Nice Martine Ouaknine, 

Karim El Karaoui, Anny Dayan Rosenman, all 

three members of the Aladdin Project’s board 

of directors, several officials of the City Council, 

and representatives of the Jewish and Muslim 

communities. It was decided to present the 

Aladdin Project to a meeting of French mayors 

and elected local officials in 2011 and discuss 

with them the type of educational and cultural 

initiatives that would be most productive in their 

cities and how the Aladdin Project could contribute 

to the process. 

Universities 

University of Istanbul: 

At a meeting between Enver Yucel, president of 

the University of Bahcesehir in Istanbul, Cengiz 

Aktar, chairman of the Department of EU rela- 

tions and Yael Habif, director of international relations 

and representatives of the Aladdin Project 

in January 2010, the university proposed a 

partnership with the Aladdin Project in the area 

of education, conference organization and joint 

academic activities. Bahcesehir University has 

been involved in the Aladdin Project’s ongoing 

discussions with the Turkish authorities to introduce 

Holocaust education and include books 

on the history of the Turkish Jewish community 

in the school curriculum. As part of this cooperation, 

the Aladdin Project and the University of 

Bahcesehir, in partnership with Princeton University 

and UNESCO, will organize together an 

international conference in 2011 on the role of 

Jewish German and Austrian scholars, who took 

refuge in Turkey in the 1930s and contributed 

to the creation of the modern university system 

in the country. 

University of Tunis: 

We have established a working relationship with 

Professor Habib Kazdaghli, head of “History and 

Memory” research group at the University of Tunis-Manouba. 

The group is part of the Research 

Laboratory for Regions and Heritage Resources, 

led by Professor Abdelhamid Larguèche. The 

cooperation focuses on the teaching of the history 

of the Jewish community in Tunisia, including 

the brief period of Nazi occupation of the 

country during the Second World War. 

University of London: 

Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and Professor Abdou 

Filali-Ansary presented the Aladdin Project in 

the "School of Oriental and African Studies' 

(SOAS), University of London in November 

2010. The University of London hosted the first 

conference on the Aladdin Project in Great 

Britain, chaired by Prof. Tudor Parfitt. Sydney 

Assor, head of the Moroccan Jewish community 

of Britain, spoke about Morocco’s support for 

the Aladdin Project, while Dr. Richard Stone, a 

veteran of interfaith dialogue in Britain, said he 

hoped to see the organization become more 

active in the UK and work with existing structures 

in their efforts to promote intercultural 

dialogue.

LOOKING AHEAD

34 

Projects underway in 2011 

The following projects are scheduled to be implemented in the second half of 2011 

and complement those already described in previous pages. 

The Muslim Righteous 

Three events in 2011 celebrate the role of Muslims 

who helped the Jews during the Holocaust: 

a premiere in Cannes in May for “The Turkish 

Passport”, the first Holocaust-related film produced 

in a Muslim country. It describes the littleknown 

story of certain Turkish diplomats in Nazi-occupied 

France who saved several hundred 

Jews of Turkish origin from deportation to the 

death camps. A screening of the film will also be 

organized in Paris in autumn in cooperation with 

the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the presence 

of ministers, ambassadors, survivors, sons 

and daughters of the Turkish diplomats. The third 

event will be a conference in Rabat about Arab 

rulers and individuals who refused to cooperate 

with the Vichy regime or the German occupiers 

against Moroccan and Tunisian Jews. 

Jewish academics’ 

contribution to modern 

education in Turkey 

University of Istanbul Bahcesehir, the Aladdin 

Project, Princeton University and UNESCO 

will be partners in the organization of a conference 

in Istanbul in 2011 that will highlight the 

role of German and Austrian scholars of Jewish 

faith who took refuge in Turkey in the 1930s 

and 1940s and founded the modern system of 

higher education in the country. 

Lanzmann’s Shoah to be 

broadcast by Turkey’s 

national television 

The Aladdin Project and its Turkish partners will 

organize a special event in Ankara to mark the 

broadcast of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah by the 

public television channel, TRT. 

Launch of Aladdin Library’s 

new books 

A conference at the National Library of France 

will mark the launch of the paperback edition 

of 10 new books in Arabic and Persian on the 

Holocaust. Panelists will include authors of the 

books, as well as prominent literary figures from 

the Arab world and Iran and Arab editors. The 

books will also be launched at the Frankfurt 

International Book Fair in October. 

“Shared Histories”: 

a conference in Nice 

At the invitation of the Municipal Council of 

Nice, a joint meeting of the Board of Directors 

of the Aladdin Project and the city council will 

take place in November under the joint chairmanship 

of Anne-Marie Revcolevschi and the 

Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosy. On this occasion, 

the city of Nice, president of Euromed

Cities Network, will host a conference about 

“Shared Histories,” the collection of books being 

produced by the Aladdin Project about Jewish- 

Muslim histories in 12 countries of North Africa, 

the Middle East and Asia. 

Spain: Intercultural 

relations from Andalusia 

and Inquisition 

to the Holocaust 

In partnership with the City of Madrid and the 

Casa Sefard, a conference will be organized in 

Madrid where a panel of historians will discuss 

two topics: “The Holocaust and Spain” and 

“Spain: A historical model for coexistence?” On 

this occasion, the Spanish Friends of the Aladdin 

Project will also be launched. 

Conference in Brussels: 

“Can education bridge the 

divide between Jews and 

Muslims in Europe? 

The Aladdin Project’s 

experience” 

A conference at the Francophone Parliament of 

Brussels in December will see the formal launch 

of the Belgian Friends of the Aladdin Project, as 

well as a conference on this subject: “Can education 

bridge the divide between Muslims and 

non-Muslims in Europe: the Aladdin Project’s experience”. 

A second conference will take place 

at the European Parliament on the presence of 

Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic books in the 

book fairs of Mediterranean countries. 

35

36 

Governance 

Staff 

The Aladdin Project staff is composed of three 

permanent members: 

• Abe Radkin, Executive Director 

• Diana Tey, responsible for websites, translations, 

publications and administrative affairs 

• Eva Bertoin, program officer 

• Esther Amar, Cécile Gauzi and Colette Loeb 

participate in the implementation of certain 

projects as volunteers. 

• For organizing the trip to Auschwitz, the 

Aladdin Project strengthened its staff by 

employing part-time, from October 2010 to 

January 2011, Myriam Allouche and Mohamed 

Kamli, an international law student. 

Executive Committee 

President: Anne-Marie Revcolevschi 

Vice President: Serge Klarsfeld 

Treasurer: Roch Olivier Maistre 

Secretary General: Fatiha Benatsou 

Members: Jacques Andréani, André Azoulay 

Ex officio members (chair of committees): 

Jean Mouttapa (Book Committee), Abdou Filali- 

Ansary (Academic Committee), Anne Hidalgo 

(Coexistence Committee), René-Samuel Sirat 

and Aly El Samman (Interfaith Committee). 

> In 2010, the Executive Committee met on four 

occasions. 

Board of Directors 

• Jacques Andreani, former ambassador of 

France to Cairo, Rome and Washington, DC 

• André Azoulay, adviser to the King of Morocco, 

president of Anna Lindh Foundation 

• Fatiha Benatsou, Prefect for equal opportunities 

in Val d'Oise 

• Marie-Hélène Bérard, President of MHB SA 

• Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist, essayist, and 

women's rights activist 

• Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer at the 

University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot 

• Hakim El Karoui, founder and President of 

the Twenty-First Century Club, a director at 

Rothschild Bank 

• Aly El Samman, president of the International 

Union for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue 

and Peace Education, Egypt 

• Abdou Filali-Ansary, philosopherand Islamic 

scholar, Morocco 

• Nilüfer Gole, Turkish anthropologist, director 

of research at EHESS 

• Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris 

• Serge Klarsfeld, lawyer and writer, president 

of the Association of Sons and Daughters of 

Jews Deported from France 

• Julia Kristeva, psychoanalyst and theorist of language 

and semiotics, chair of the Faculty of Languages 

and Literature at the University of Paris VII 

• Claude Lanzmann, writer and filmmaker 

• Roch-Olivier Maistre, first Attorney-General 

at the Court of Auditors 

• Jean Mouttapa, director of Living Spiritualities 

Collection, Albin Michel Publishers 

• Ndioro Ndiaye, minister in several governments 

in Senegal, 

• Martine Ouaknine, lawyer, Deputy Mayor of Nice 

• Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the 

Aladdin Project 

• René-Samuel Sirat, former Chief Rabbi of France 

> During this period, the board of directors met on 

two occasions.

Committees 

Committees are responsible for studying project 

proposals in their area of expertise. If approved 

by the committee, the project is then sent to 

the Board for final evaluation and adoption. 

Committees oversee the work of project 

directors by evaluating their progress reports. 

During 2010, the composition of the existing 

committees was enlarged and new committees 

were formed. 

Committee on Conscience 

The Committee on Conscience is the 

international advisory board of the Aladdin 

Project. The committee’s membership is being 

enlarged to include intellectual, political, social 

and academic figures from around the world, 

reflecting a broad diversity of cultural and 

religious backgrounds. The current list includes 

only the personalities from the Muslim world 

who have accepted to join the committee. 

• Chair: Jacques Andréani, Ambassador of France 

• Khrouz Driss, Director of the National Library 

of Morocco 

• Yasar Yakis, former Foreign Minister, Turkey 

• Bakhtiar Amin, former Minister of Human 

Rights, Iraq 

• Ilber Ortayli, president of the Topkapi Museum, 

Turkey 

• Sari Nusaybah, president of Al Quds University 

• Enver Yucel, president of Bahcesehir Istanbul 

University, Turkey 

• Iyad Allawi, former Prime Minister of Iraq 

• Salah Stétié, poet and former diplomat, Lebanon 

• Daryoush Shayegan, philosopher and writer, Iran 

• Doudou Diene, former UN special rapporteur 

on contemporary forms of racism, racial 

discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance, 

Senegal 

• Tarek Heggy, Egyptian writer and thinker 

Book Committee 

• Chair: Jean Mouttapa, Director of Spirituality 

Collection, Albin Michel Publishers 

• Joseph Maila, professor of political sociology, 

expert on Islam and the Middle East, former 

Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris 

• Djenane Kareh Tager, writer and journalist, Lebanon 

• Jean-François Colosimo, president, National Book 

Centre (CNL), philosopher, theologian and editor 

• Henry Rousso, historian, research director at CNRS 

• Joel Kotek, historian, professor at the Free 

University of Brussels 

• Rachid Benzine, expert on Islam, author, 

lecturer at the Institute for Political Studies in 

Aix-en-Provence 

Interfaith Committee 

• Chairs: Dr. Aly El Samman, President of the 

International Union for Jewish-Christian-Muslim 

Dialogue and Peace Education, Chief Rabbi 

Rene-Samuel Sirat, 

• Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia 

• Dr Abduljalil Sajid, spiritual leader of the 

Pakistani community in Britain 

• René Gutman, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, France 

• Father Patrick Desbois, president of the 

Association Yahad Unum, France 

• Alexander Sinyakov, rector of the Russian 

Orthodox seminary in France 

• Tareq Oubrou, rector of the Mosque of 

Bordeaux, President of the Association of 

Imams of France 

Academic Committee 

• Chair: Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, 

philosopher, Morocco 

• Julia Kristeva, philosopher, chair of the Faculty of 

Languages and Literature at the University of Paris- 

VII 

• Nilüfer Gole, Turkish anthropologist, director of 

research at the EHESS 

• Anny Dayan-Rosenman, Senior Lecturer 

(Literature) at the University of Paris-VII 

• Cengiz Aktar, political scientist and academic, 

Turkey 

• Ahmed Anwar Dezaye, president of the 

University of Salahaddin, Erbil, Iraq 

• Mohammed Tozy, political scientist and 

academic, Morocco 

• Adel Al-Kayar, university professor, Iraq 

• Mohammed Dajani, president of Wasatia 

Movement, professor at Al-Quds University 

• Jamaa Baida, professor at the University of 

Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco 

37

38 

"Living together" Committee 

• Chair: Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris 

• Anny Dayan Rosenman, Senior Lecturer at 

University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot 

• Hakim El Karoui, director at Rothschild Bank 

• Martine Ouaknine, Deputy Mayor of Nice 

• Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist, essayist, and 

women’s rights activist 

• Rafik Hassani, National Secretary in charge of 

international relations of the RCD, Algeria 

• Fouzi Bettache, Secretary General of MOSAIC 

Federation, France 

"Friends of the Aladdin 

Project" in different 

countries 

A number of affiliate groups called "Friends of 

the Aladdin Project" are being formed in several 

countries, including Belgium, Turkey, Spain, Britain 

and the United States, and the process of forming 

these groups is already underway. 

• Belgium: Hubert Benkoski created in 

Brussels the Belgian Friends of the Aladdin 

Project. Several Jewish, Muslim and Christian 

personalities have already joined the 

committee. The committee will be working 

with us to organize a conference at the Belgian 

Parliament and the European Parliament in 

December 2011. 

• Turkey: Prof. Cengiz Aktar is the coordinator 

of the Friends of the Aladdin Project in Turkey 

and works closely with Nilüfer Göle, one of 

our Board members. Other members of the 

committee include Prof. Ilber Ortayli, president 

of Topkapi Museum, influential editorialist Ali 

Bayramoglu and Naim Guleryuz, president 

of the Jewish Museum of Istanbul, filmmaker 

Gunes Celikcan and academic Yael Habif. The 

committee was actively involved in mobilizing 

Turkish personalities and influential columnists 

to take part in the visit to Auschwitz and 

recount their experience in the Turkish media. 

• Spain: Henar Corbi, former member of the 

Spanish Parliament and currently a leader of 

Casa Sefarad, has started work on the creation 

of the “Spanish Friends of the Aladdin Project”. 

She has already received commitments from 

several personalities, including the Mayor of 

Madrid and former foreign minister, Miguel 

Moratinos. The committee will be working 

with us to organize a conference in Madrid in 

November 2011. 

• Britain: Michelle Huberman, a founder of the 

Association of Jews from the Middle East and 

North Africa in London, is working to create 

the “Friends of the Aladdin Project in Britain”. 

• United States: Professor Elie Wiesel has 

agreed to be president of the "American 

Friends of the Aladdin Project" and several 

other personalities, including Howard 

Berman, chairman of the Democratic 

Committee on Foreign Affairs of Congress, 

former Congressman John Tanner, and Esther 

Coopersmith, Goodwill Ambassador of 

UNESCO, have agreed in principle to join the 

committee, which is being formed with the 

help of the French embassy in Washington, DC.

Financial statements 

From September 2009 to December 2010, funding for the Aladdin Project came from private 

Foundations in France and abroad, public institutions in France and individual donors. The Aladdin 

Project Fund, an endowment fund, was set up under a recent French legislation with the aim 

of finding international financial support primarily for the activities of the Aladdin Project. Its 

president, David de Rothschild, has defined the fundraising policy and priorities and addressed 

letters to different potential donors. The Aladdin Project’s annual reports and accounts are 

certified by Cabinet Mazars (Mazars Group), one of France’s leading independent audits. 

Notes: 

1. As the Aladdin Project Association began its operations in September 2009, the financial report 

was prepared and audited for the last quarter of 2009 and the year 2010 as a whole. 

2. The assets accumulated by the end of 2010 were largely allocated to two projects (the visit to 

Auschwitz and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah), and the major expenditures for these two projects 

were incurred in the first quarter of 2011. 

Financial Data: 2009 (last quarter) and 2010 

Fondation 

Rothschild (Institut 

Alain de Rothschild) 

8% 

Total SA 

3% 

French Ministry of 

Defense 

3% 

Private 

donors 

9% 

Edomnd J. Safra 

Philanthropic 

Foundation 

32% 

Fondation pour la 

Mémoire de la 

Shoah 

45% 

- All amounts in Euro - 

Grants and Donations 

39

40 

Expenditures 

Collection of 12 

books on "Shared 

Histories" 

6% 

Online degree 

course on Jewish- 

Muslim relations 

1% 

Development of 

multilingual website 

8% 

Shoah of Claude 

Lanzmann 

11% 

Translation 

of 10 new books 

25% 

Projects 

75% 

Overall Results: Last quarter of 2009 + 2010 

General 

administration 

19% 

Conferences 

in 10 cities 

27% 

Preparation 

of visit 

to Auschwitz 

22% 

Board members' 

travels 

1% 

Fundraising 

5% 

Project Expenditures 

TOTAL INCOME 475 010 

Total Expenditures 275 591 

Net assets on December 31, 2010 199 418

Recognition 

We express our gratitude to the donors and institutional partners, whose contribution and 

partnership made our work possible: 

Donors 

Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah 

Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation 

Rothschild Foundation (Institut Alain de Rothschild) 

Ministry of Defense (France), Directorate of Memory, Heritage and Archives 

TOTAL SA 

Institutional partners 

UNESCO 

Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, France 

Mémorial de la Shoah 

Paris City Hall 

University of Istanbul Bahcesehir 

National Library of Morocco 

Private donors 

David de Rothschild 

Sabrina Azoulay 

Toutou-Baila Diagne 

David Revcolevschi 

41

42 

List of Annexes

Annex A 

Members of the International Delegation that visited Auschwitz 

on February 1, 2011 

Annex B 

Message of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco to the organizers 

of the visit of the international delegation to Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

Annex C 

Remarks by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Chairman of the Islamic 

Conference Organization, at the press conference at the City Hall of Paris, 

January 31, 2011 

Annex D 

Speech by Samuel Pisar 

in the name of Holocaust survivors and martyrs, 

Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

Annex E 

Speech by Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, 

at the International Monument, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

Annex F 

Remarks by Ms Irina Bokova, 

Director-General of UNESCO, 

at the press conference at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011 

Annex G 

Remarks by Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, 


Annex H 

Speech by Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, 

Deputy Director General of the United Nations, Auschwitz, February 1, 

2011 

Annex I 

Speech by Mr. Gerhard Schröder, 

Former Chancellor of Germany, 


Annex J 

Message of Dr. Ali Goma’a, Grand Mufti of Egypt, 

to the Aladdin Project on the occasion 

of the visit to Auschwitz 

43

44 

Survivors of the Holocaust 

Mr. Raphael Esrail, France 

Ms. Ida Grinspan, France 

Ms. Ginette Kolinka, France 

Ms. Levy Yvette, France 

Mr. Samuel Pisar, France 

Mr. Rosenman Izio, France 

Mr. Roth Nicolas, France 

Mr. Roman Mr Frist, Poland 

Mr. Marian Turski, Poland 

In the presence of 

Mr. Stjepan Mesic, former President of the Republic 

of Croatia 

Mr. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, former President of 

the Republic of Mauritania 

Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, former German Chancellor 

Representatives of Heads of States and 

Governments 

Prof. Roman Kuzniar, senior advisor to the President 

of the Republic for foreign policy, representing 

Mr. Bronislaw Komorowski, President of the 

Republic of Poland; 

H.E. François Zimeray, Ambassador for Human 

Rights, representing Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, President 

of the French Republic; 

H.E. Aziza Bennani, Ambassador, representing 

H.M. King Mohammed VI of Morocco; 

H.E. Yasar Yakis, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

Chairman of the Committee for harmonization 

of relations with the European Union at the 

Grand National Assembly of Turkey, representing 

Mr. Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of 

Turkey; 

H.E. Bakhtiar Amin, former Minister, representing 

President Jalal Talabani of Iraq; 

H.E. Egemen Bagis, Minister in charge of Euro- 

Annex A 

Members of the International Delegation 

that visited Auschwitz on February 1, 2011 

pean Affairs and Chief Negotiator with the EU, 

representing Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime 

Minister of the Republic of Turkey; 

H.E. Eleonora Mitrofanova, Ambassador, Permanent 

Delegate of the Russian Federation, 

President of the Executive Board of UNESCO, 

representing the Government of the Russian 

Federation; 

H.E. David Killion, Ambassador, Permanent 

Delegate of USA to UNESCO, representing the 

Government of the United States of America; 

Lord Greville Janner, Chairman of the Holocaust 

Educational Trust, representing the United 

Kingdom; 

H.E. Dina Kawar, Ambassador, representing the 

Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of 

Jordan 

Mr. Alon Simhayoff, representing H.E. Zvi Rav- 

Ner, Israeli Ambassador to Poland (absent from 

Poland) 

H.E. Maciej Kozłowski, Ambassador-at-Large for 

Polish-Jewish relations, representing the Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs of Poland 

Mr. Stanisław Kracik, Prefect of the region of 

Krakow, Poland 

Religious figures 

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of 

Krakow, Poland 

Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, President of the 

International Council of Yad Vashem, a survivor 

of the Holocaust, Israel 

Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia 

Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, 

France 

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, 

France 

Mr. Gilles Bernheim, Chief Rabbi of France 

Mr. Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland

Sheikh Khamis Abda, President of imams in the 

Palestinian territories 

Dr. Abduljalil Sajid, spiritual leader of the Pakistani 

Muslim community in Great Britain 

Mr. René Gutman, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, 

France 

Father Patrick Desbois, President of Yahad Unum 

Association, France 

Mr. Alexander Sinyakov, Rector of the Russian 

Orthodox seminary in France, director of ecumenical 

relations in the Diocese of Chersonese, 

Patriarchate of Moscow 

Professor Arie Ben-Nun 

Mr. Tareq Oubrou, Rector of the Mosque of 

Bordeaux, President of the Association of Imams 

of France 

Mr. Assani Fassassi, Secretary General of the 

French Federation of Islamic Associations of 

Africa, the Comoros and the Caribbean 

Mr. Yehoshua Ellis, rabbi of the Jewish community 

in Katowice, Poland 


Ms. Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the 

Aladdin Project 

Mr. David de Rothschild, Chairman of the Aladdin 

Fund 

Mr. Jacques Andréani, Ambassador of France 

Mr. André Azoulay, Advisor to the King of 

Morocco, President of Anna-Lindh Foundation 

Ms. Marie-Hélène Bérard, President of MHB 

Ms. Anny Dayan-Rosenman, senior lecturer at 

the University of Paris VII 

Mr Eric de Rothschild, President of Shoah 

Memorial 

Mr. Aly Elsamman, Chairman of the Committee 

for Interreligious Dialogue, Egypt 

Ms. Ndioro Ndiaye, former Minister of Women, 

President of the Alliance for Migration, Leadership 

and Development, Senegal 

Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, philosopher, 

Morocco 

Ms. Nilufer Gole, anthropologist, director of 

research at EHESS, Turkey 

Mr. Claude Lanzmann, director and filmmaker, 

France 

Mr. Roch-Olivier Maistre, First Advocate General 

at the Court of Auditors, France 

Jean Mouttapa, director of the Spirituality Live 

Series Albin Michel 

Mr. Abe Radkin, Executive Director of Aladdin 

Project 

Political, intellectual and academic 

personalities 

Prof. Ilber Ortaylı, President of the Topkapi 

Museum, Turkey 

Mr. Driss El Yazami, Chairman of the Moroccan 

community abroad, Morocco 

Ms. Catherine Colonna, former minister, France 

Dr. Richard Prasquier, President of CRIF 

Mr. Pierre Besnainou, President of the United 

Jewish Social Fund, France 

Mr. Anis Al Qaq, former Secretary of State, 

Palestine 

Mr. Ofer Bronchtein, former advisor to Yitzhak 

Rabin, president of the International Forum for 

Peace and Reconciliation in the Middle East, 

Israel 

Mr. Stanisław Bisztyga, Senator of Krakow, Poland 

Mr. Piotr Cywinski, Director of the Museum of 

Auschwitz, Poland 

Mr. Kazdaghli Habib, historian, Tunisia 

Mr. Sari Nusaybah, President of Al Quds University, 

Palestine 

Mr. Rafik Hassani, Member of Parliament, National 

Secretary in charge of international relations 

of RCD, Algeria 

Mr. Enver Yucel, president of Bahcesehir University 

in Istanbul, Turkey 

Mr. Anwar Ahmed Amin, President of the University 

of Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq 

Ms. Corinne Evens, Belgium 

Mr. Adel Al-Kayar, University Professor, Iraq 

Mr. Driss Khrouz, Director of the National 

Library of Morocco 

Mr. A. B. Yehoshua, writer, Israel 

Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal (ret.) , MD, Former 

Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Asst 

Secretary for Health, USA 

Professor Paweł Machcewicz, Director of the 

Museum of World War II, Warsaw, Poland 

Mr. Faruk Kaymakci, diplomatic adviser to the 

Minister in charge of relations with the European 

Union, Turkey 

Ms. Bariza Khiari, Senator, France 

45

46 

Mr. Michel Abitbol, historian, Israel 

Mr. Mohammed Dajani, President of the Wasatia 

Movement, professor at Al Quds University, 

Palestine 

Mr. Rachid Arhab, member of the Supreme 

Audiovisual Council, France 

Mr. Fouzi Bettache, Secretary General of the 

MOSAIC Federation, France 

Mr. Simon Xavier Guerrand-Hermes, President 

of "Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace” 

Mr. Mohammed Tozy, political scientist and academic, 

Morocco 

Ms. Amira Mostafa, Director of "Arab World 

Center for Democratic Development, Jordan 

Mr. Tudor Parfitt, a professor at the School of 

Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 

United Kingdom 

Claude Nataf, President of the Historical Society 

of Jews from Tunisia 

Mr. Jamaa Baida, professor at the University of 

Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco 

Mr. Abdellatif Laâbi, writer, Morocco 

Mr. Faouzi Skali, Director of the Festival of Fez, 

Morocco 

Mrs. Binnaz Toprak, professor of political science, 

Turkey 

Mr. Sedat Ergin, columnist for the newspaper 

Hurriet, Turkey 

Mr. Hasan Cemal, columnist, Turkey 

Mr. Ali Bayramoglu, sociologist and writer, Turkey 

Mr. Cengiz Aktar, political scientist and columnist, 

Turkey 

Mr. Izak Kolman, representative of the Jewish 

community in Turkey 

Ms. Gabrielle Rochmann, Deputy Director, Foundation 

for the Memory of the Shoah, France 

Mr. Cemal Usak, Vice-President of the Union of 

Journalists and Writers, Turkey 

Mr. Fehmi Koru, columnist, Turkey 

Ms. Yael Habif, Director of International Relations, 

University of Bahcesehir Istanbul, Turkey 

Mr. Gunes Celikcan, filmmaker, Turkey 

Mayors 

Mr. Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris, France 

Mr. Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakow, Poland 

Mr. Nicephore Soglo, Mayor of Cotonou, former 

President of the Republic, Benin 

Mr. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Mayor of Madrid, 

Spain 

Mr. Adama Sangare, Mayor of Bamako, Mali 

Mr. Sorin Oprescu, Mayor of Bucharest, Romania 

Mr. Fathallah Oualalou, Mayor of Rabat, Morocco 

Mr. Nihad Qoja, Mayor of Erbil, Iraq 

Mr. Jean-François Ntoutoume-Emane, Mayor of 

Libreville, Gabon 

Mr. Simon Compaore, Mayor of Ouagadougou, 

Burkina Faso 

Mr. Alija Behmen, Mayor of Sarajevo, Bosnia 

Mr. Mohamed Sajid, Mayor of Casablanca, 

Morocco 

Mr. Abdelhamid Chabat, Mayor of Fez, Morocco 

Mr. Hilal Ahmed, mayor of Meknes, Morocco 

Mr. Janusz Marszalek, Mayor of Oswiecim, Poland 

Mrs Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris, 

France 

Pierre Schapira, Deputy Mayor of Paris, France 

Martine Ouaknine, Deputy Mayor of Nice, 

France 

International Organizations 

Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General 

of the United Nations, special envoy of Mr. Ban 

Ki-moon 

Ms. Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO 

Mr. Mevlut Çavuşoğlu, President of the Parliamentary 

Assembly of the Council of Europe 

Mr. Francesco Bandarin, Deputy Director General 

for Culture, Director of the World Heritage 

Centre 

Mr Eric Falt, Director-General for External Relations 

and Public Information, UNESCO 

Mr. Alain Husson-Dumoutier, Artist for Peace, 

painter and sculptor of UNESCO 

Ms. Hedva Ser, Artist for Peace, Vice-President 

and founder of the International Museum of 

Women Artists 

Ambassadors and diplomats 

H.E. Esther Coopersmith, UNESCO Goodwill 

Ambassador, USA 

H.E. Almir Sahovic, Ambassador of Bosnia- 

Herzegovina to France 

H.E. Resit Uman, Ambassador of Turkey to 

Poland 

H.E. Rama Yade, Ambassador and Permanent

Delegate of France to UNESCO 

H.E. Davidson L. Hepburn, Ambassador and Permanent 

Delegate of the Bahamas to UNESCO, 

President of the 35th session of the General 

Conference of UNESCO 

H.E. Krzysztof Kocel, Ambassador and Permanent 

Delegate of Poland to UNESCO 

H.E. Miguel Angel Estrella, Ambassador, Permanent 

Delegate of Argentina to UNESCO 

H.E. Odette Yao Yao, Ambassador, Permanent 

Delegate of Ivory Coast to UNESCO 

H.E. Martina Nibbeling-Wrießnig, Ambassador, 

Permanent Delegate of Germany to UNESCO 

H.E. Alexander Savov, Ambassador, Permanent 

Delegate of Bulgaria to UNESCO 

Mr. Alexis Chahtahtinsky, Consul General of 

France in Krakow 

Heinz Peters, Consul General of Germany in 

Krakow 

Mr. Allen S. Greenberg, Consul General of the 

United States in Krakow 

47

48 

Annex B 

Message of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco to the 

organizers of the visit of the international delegation 

to Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

It is with great pleasure that I received your kind invitation to participate in the commemoration of 

Holocaust victims planned on February 1, 2011, in the framework of the “Aladdin Project.” 

I would like to commend, on this occasion, the hard work of members of the Aladdin Project to 

create opportunities for a fruitful dialogue based on mutual respect and aimed at combating misinformation, 

stereotypes and Holocaust denial, ferment of extremism that stifles the voice of reason 

and alters the spirit of moderation. 

Setting up an online library that brings together for the first time in Arabic and Persian books on 

the history of the Holocaust sets the stage for a much-needed work of memory and resonates like 

a call to collective conscience. 

It was in this spirit of bringing people together that I sent last year a message to participants at the 

launch conference of the Aladdin Project, reiterating my frank and unequivocal support for the 

values of human dignity. I was the first Sovereign in the Arab world to share my reading of the duty 

of remembrance that the Holocaust imposes upon us, that of a wound to the collective memory, 

which we know is engraved in one of the most painful chapters in the collective history of mankind. 

I would like to assure you of my firm commitment and determination to advocate for the noble 

ideals promoted by your project and my full support for initiatives being launched within this framework, 

including an upcoming conference in Rabat with the theme "The Muslim Righteous.” 

It is with great interest that I wish your present undertaking every success. 

The organization of the visit by High Personalities to a place that will forever be remembered as a 

symbol of intolerance and anti-Semitism will, without doubt, enable the younger generations to carry 

out an essential work of remembrance. 

In this regard, I have designated Madam Ambassador Aziza Bennani, Permanent Delegate to 

UNESCO, to represent me in this important event.

Annex C 

Remarks by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, 

Chairman of the Islamic Conference Organization, 


You were not surprised at the statement I made at UNESCO in 2009 at the launch of the Aladdin 

Project to give my full support to this initiative. I am committed to this cause first by human sensitivity 

and also because I am a liberal, that is, someone who believes in the fundamental values of 

human beings. 

The anti-Jewish racism is well-known and the Final Solution was put into action. This is what the 

Nazis wanted, to make the Jews disappear from the planet. Other forms of racism, although they 

tend to disappear today, still survive in customs and traditions. I am one of those who think that we 

must fight against the neglect of certain events. The Holocaust cannot be denied, it is a historical fact 

and if we keep its memory alive, it’s because we do not want it to happen again. As I said, man is 

made of values and anti-values and if the anti-values dominate, it is possible that there will be other 

genocides may be with other races. That’s why we need to be vigilant. 

49

50 

Annex D 

Speech by Samuel Pisar in the name of Holocaust survivors 

and martyrs, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

Honorable Heads and Former Heads of State and Government, 

Chairman of the Islamic Conference Organization, 

Grand Muftis, Cardinals, Chief Rabbis, 

Director General of UNESCO, 

Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, 

Mayor of Paris, 

President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, 

President of Project Aladdin, 

Excellencies, Eminences and Highnesses, 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

To address in the name of the martyrs and survivors of this cursed and sacred place where the barge 

of human civilization went under, such an illustrious international audience of political, religious and 

cultural leaders, is an awesome responsibility. It was assigned to me because I am a survivor of Auschwitz, 

Majdanek and Dachau. 

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for having undertaken this truly historic pilgrimage to the 

world’s largest cemetery – a cemetery without graves or tombstones, which accounts for more than 

one and a half million innocent souls. Your presence here to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the

camp’s liberation and to launch an ecumenical dialogue about the Holocaust that transcends political, 

ideological and religious strife, opens a new and promising horizon for the future. 

We are gathered for this exceptional moment of inter-faith solidarity on the blood-soaked soil of 

Poland, the country of my birth. Among the six million European Jews annihilated by the Nazis and 

their accomplices, as much as a quarter, including my entire family and all 500 children of my school, 

perished in the gas chambers of Birkenau (Auschwitz II) whose ruins you have inspected today. Some 

200.000 Poles, Gypsies, prisoners of war, resistance fighters, political leaders and others were also 

murdered here. 

It is therefore here, united by the same pain, with the mind-boggling evidence staring us in the face, that 

we can best meditate on the old and new forms of intolerance, injustice and violence that are again 

inflaming our fratricidal and suicidal world. From here we speak to all nations, races and religions, to 

white and black, rich and poor, young and old. For we are at the epicenter of the greatest catastrophe 

ever perpetrated by man against man, under the largely indifferent gaze of our fellow-humans. 

As a skeletal 15-year old with shaved head and sunken eyes, I was a direct witness of that catastrophe. 

My testimony will spare you the unspeakable horrors I have endured, but allow me to evoke one 

nightmarish image that haunts me to this day. Hallucinating from hunger, anxiety and grief, while the 

crematoria spewed fire and smoke, I saw interminable lines of men, women and children, brought here 

by cattle trains from all corners of this continent -- often 10,000 per day -- being herded into the gas 

chambers. And I heard them murmur their last “Shema”, the ultimate prayer of our common Abrahamic 

faith: “The Lord, our God, the Lord is one.” 

After the steel doors were shut, they had only three minutes to live. Yet they found enough strength to 

dig their fingernails into the walls and scratch in the words: « Never Forget! » Those words, and their 

myriad echoes that still reverberate in time and space, have imposed on us all a sacred obligation to 

remember. The Auschwitz number engraved on my arm reminds me of it every day. And today, Excellencies 

and Eminences, it is my duty to remind you, indeed, everyone who would listen, and particularly 

the young. For the deluge of hatred, cruelty and fear that is currently upon us threatens to devastate 

their universe as it once devastated mine. 

The planned and systematic extermination of my people unleashed by Hitler and his henchmen destroyed 

everyone and everything around me, and condemned me to slave labor till death, in this vast 

extermination factory where Eichmann and Mengele eclipsed Dante’s vision of inferno. In the Spring 

of 1945, as the victorious allied armies converged on Germany from East and West, I escaped from 

my jailors in a hail of bullets, and was liberated by an armored column of American GI’s. After a long 

and difficult rehabilitation, I went on to live, study, work and thrive in the warm embrace of freedom 

and democracy. 

Today, looking back on my tortuous odyssey of blood and hope, and the renewed carnage that is 

spreading from continent to continent, I fear that mankind has learned nothing from the barbarism that 

reigned in the era Auschwitz; that man remains capable of the worst as of the best, of hatred as of love, 

of madness as of genius; that unless we heed the warnings of our horror-filled past, respect the sanctity 

and dignity of human life and espouse the core universal values shared by all great creeds – religious 

and secular - the darkness will return with a vengeance to ruin our future 

In the wake of the “Final Solution” which decimated the Jewish nation, and the mass exterminations of 

Cambodians, Bosnians, Rwandis, Darfuris and others since then, humanity is faced with growing risks 

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of new man-made calamities, some of them planetary, with plagues of toxic gas, swarms of nuclear 

missiles and radioactive mushroom clouds. If such reflections are relevant today, it is because amid the 

ashes of Auschwitz we can discern the specter of doomsday we are too blind to anticipate and too 

divided to prevent. 

From where, if not from this God-forsaken place can come the alert that the unthinkable is again 

possible? Where if not here can we find the inspiration, courage and unity to deal with the existential 

challenges that lie ahead? If the innocents who have perished here could make themselves heard, they 

would surely clamor before you: “Never again devastating wars between hereditary enemies: Germans 

and French, Chinese and Japanese, Indians and Pakistanis, Arabs and Jews; never again Crusades or 

Jihads, Stalingrads or Hiroshimas, racist genocides, ethnic cleansings or religious assassinations. Never 

Again! 

We the last living survivors of the Holocaust are now disappearing one by one. After us history will 

speak about it at best, with the impersonal voice of scholars and novelists; at worst, in the malevolent 

register of falsifiers and demagogues. This process has already begun, and its most incendiary practitioners, 

who are still plotting to wipe us out, promote it in shameless disregard of the manifest truth. 

No, Excellencies and Eminences, what we are commemorating today is not a ”myth”. It is a unique, 

unprecedented, gruesome reality implemented by bloodthirsty tyrants and dictators on these very 

killing fields. Cynical allegations by their would-be imitators, that the atrocious crimes against humanity 

we have experienced in body and soul had never happened, are not only unbearably painful to hear. 

They invite repetitions of such crimes against us, against others, even against their own long-suffering 

kin. Permit me to say that this perverse mentality is unworthy of those who cherish the lofty commandments 

of our great faiths, and who worship the same monotheistic God. 

This morning I had to pinch myself as I stood with my fellow-survivors in the bitter cold and icy wind 

of Birkenau, reciting “Kaddish” – the timeless mourners’ prayer for loved ones -- in the presence of the 

Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Archbishop of Paris, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and so many official envoys 

from Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Senegal, Palestine and elsewhere. We were particularly moved by 

the strong and stirring words of the Grand Mufti: “I am here to say to those who deny the Holocaust 

in Auschwitz and the genocide in Srebrenica that they are also committing genocide.” 

It is with deep gratitude and great expectations that we welcome your noble Project Aladdin – a 

sobering call of conscience and conviction to raise public awareness of the ravages and lessons of the 

Holocaust; and to oppose all new forms of prejudice, discrimination, persecution or terror -- be they 

against Jews, Muslims, Christians or anyone else. 

May the magic lamp of Aladdin help light the way to a more radiant future for the children of Abraham, 

and all others yearning so fervently for freedom, democracy and peace.

Annex E 

Speech by Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, at the 

International Monument, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

Why am I here today? 

I am here because I wanted to see this with my own eyes. 

As it is says in an Arabic proverb, « It is not the same what you hear and what you see ». 

I want to thank the Aladdin Project, UNESCO, and the City of Paris for inviting us to see the extent 

of evil that human beings can do to other human beings. 

I didn’t care about Auschwitz, I didn’t know about Auschwitz until what happened to me and to my 

people. 

I am here to say to all of you and to the rest of the world: don’t wait for genocides to happen to 

you. I am here to say to those who deny Holocaust in Auschwitz and those who deny genocide in 

Srebrenica that you are capable of committing genocide again. 

And if we really want to prevent future genocides we must do much more than sympathize with 

the victims. We have to comprehend the psychological depth of the perpetrators of genocide and 

indifference of genocide observers. 

We have to learn what makes some persons, who were once normal, to hate other persons and 

people to the extent that they want to systematically and methodically eliminate them all! But we 

also need to learn about those who support genocide against innocent people or observe it from 

the distance! We need to learn more about them too! 

We need to learn about the holocaust and genocides not only as of historical facts but also as a 

means to teach our children about the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other 

examples of human intolerance. 

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We must teach younger generations to appreciate democracy and human rights and encourage 

them to reject hatred, intolerance and ethnic conflicts so that “never again” is really true. 

So I want to send a message: those who deny the Holocaust and genocides are capable of committing 

genocide again. 

Today, here in Auschwitz we are united in hope that our future will be better than our past so let 

us pray together: 

• Our Lord, if we sin, give us the strength of Adam's repentance! 

• If disaster befalls us, teach us how to build Noah’s Ark! 

• If despair darkens us, enlighten us with Abraham's honest faith! 

• If we are threatened by a tyrant, empower us with Moses’ courage! 

• If we are offered hatred, save us with Jesus' love! 

• If we are in despair and destitute, strengthen us with Mohammed's call for social justice! 

• Our Lord, we ask you to unite our hearts in humanity! 

• Our Lord, we ask you to strengthen our steps towards truth and justice! 

• Our Lord, we ask you to unite our will towards peace and security! 

• Our Lord, we ask you to take away the violent sword from tyrants and empower the 

weak with a trust in truth and justice. 

• Our Lord, do not let success deceive us 

• Nor failure takes us to despair! 

• Always remind us that failure is a temptation that precedes success! 

• Our Lord, teach us that tolerance is the highest degree of power and that the desire for 

revenge is the first sign of weakness! 

• Our Lord, if you deprive us of our property, give us hope! 

• If you take from us the blessing of health, provide us with the blessing of faith! 

• Our Lord, if we sin against people, give us the strength of apology! 

• And if people sin against us, give us the strength of forgiveness! 

• Our Lord, may grief become hope! 

• May revenge become justice! 

• May mother's tears become prayers that Auschwitz and Srebrenica never happen again, 

to anyone and anywhere! Amen!

Annex F 

Remarks by Ms Irina Bokova, 

Director-General of UNESCO, at the press conference 

at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011 

Mr Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, 

Mr President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the Islamic 

Conference, Abdoulaye Wade, 

Madam Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Asha-Rose Migiro, 

Madam President of the Aladdin project, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

UNESCO has sponsored the Aladdin project since it was launched in 2009. Our support for this 

project and our trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau tomorrow form part of our education programme on 

Holocaust remembrance and tolerance. 

The trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau is very close to our hearts at UNESCO for a number of reasons, 

of which I shall mention two. 

The first reason is that within the next 20 years or so, all the survivors of the Holocaust will have 

passed away. In order to understand what the Holocaust was, all that we will have left will be their 

eyewitness accounts, the historical records and the Auschwitz-Birkenau site. All of these resources 

are vital, as they enable us to go beyond an “intellectual” and “abstract” representation of the massacre, 

in order to face the painful truth and the stark reality of death. 

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Auschwitz-Birkenau is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I would add that it is the only site to have 

been inscribed by the States Parties with the explicit intention of fulfilling the duty to transmit 

remembrance to future generations. 

The second reason has to do with the composition of our delegation. The Holocaust does not just 

concern a single nation or a single region. The Holocaust concerns all of us. All politicians, intellectuals 

and religious leaders in every country throughout the world must combat negationism and racism. 

Regardless of our origins, our culture or our religion, this trip can help to put an end to conflicts of 

memory. It can help to foster the emergence of a collective memory based on a shared narrative 

of the past. 

This is the message of the Aladdin project and the message conveyed by UNESCO. The Holocaust is 

not merely a “dark page” or a “tragic episode” of history, but a point of no return – the collapse of civilization. 

The Holocaust put paid to the meaning of collective construction, humanism and dialogue; 

if we wish to rebuild humanism today, we are duty-bound to go back through Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

I hope that with initiatives such as these we may help to make this death camp a gathering place for 

all cultures of the world and the starting point of a new humanism. 

Thank you.

Annex G 

Remarks by Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, at the press 

conference at the City Hall of Paris, January 31, 2011 

A visit to Auschwitz is an effort of truth and clarity with regard to human history. It’s a tribute to 

the victims, a desire to give life to a message of humanity. But the unprecedented visit that we 

will undertake tomorrow will have a larger, and I hope stronger, message. For tomorrow we'll be 

together, women and men from all continents, of all races, of all colors of skin. We will be in a way 

humanity itself, responding to that extraordinarily shameful moment for humanity with another 

moment that brings honor to humanity. It is important that tomorrow we stand together, sitting 

or former Heads of State, including the President of the Republic of Senegal who is also Chairman 

of the Islamic Conference Organization, as well as mayors of the Maghreb, Africa, Europe, Turkey. It 

is their presence, and the presence of many Turkish, Palestinian, North African, Pakistani, and other 

personalities that's the strength of this gathering. Tomorrow, there will be Jews, Muslims, Christians, 

as well as atheists and agnostics. Tomorrow there will be humanity at its most beautiful, when human 

beings gather with no distinction other than their humanity, in order to say that this did take place, 

that we condemn it, that we want it to be known and that we affirm in the face of humanity that we 

stand united to reject anti-Semitism, racism, Islamophobia, and discrimination of any kind. 

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Annex H 

Speech by Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Director General 

of the United Nations, Auschwitz, February 1, 2011 

Excellencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Holocaust survivors, 

I am deeply moved and humbled to be standing in Auschwitz, where millions of men, women and 

children were brutally and systematically murdered during the Holocaust. 

I am honored to be here with survivors who had the good fortune to rise above their Nazi tormenters. 

And honored to pay tribute to the liberators who triumphed over the Nazi atrocities. 

Auschwitz will be forever imprinted in our minds and souls as the international symbol of mass 

murder and horror. 

Our hearts will continue to ache for the suffering of the victims and their families. Only near the end 

of the war did the world begin to grasp the extent of the genocide and crimes committed here. 

Even now, decades later, we still have much to learn. That is why the United Nations instituted an 

annual day of commemoration in memory of the victims. 

And that is why the United Nations General Assembly called for an outreach programme to develop 

educational materials about the Holocaust. To help people understand what happened here and 

across the vast sea of extermination camps -- so that it may never, ever happen again. 

We are hard at work with partners such as Yad Vashem, reaching out to young people the world 

over. We are promoting respect for diversity and human rights, combating hatred and racism. We are 

speaking out against all forms of Holocaust denial. 

We owe this to all those today who face prejudice and violence. And we owe this to the millions of 

Jews and other minorities to whom we pay tribute today. 

May these surroundings, and the memories of what happened here, guide us in heeding the lessons 

of the Holocaust. 

Here in Auschwitz-Birkenau, where darkness fell. Let us pledge to bring more light to the world. 

Thank you.

Excellencies, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Annex I 

Speech by Gerhard Schröder, 


After visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial, it is hard to find any words, let alone the right ones, 

to express the incomprehensible. 

As a former Chancellor of Germany, I feel that I have a special responsibility when being asked to 

speak on such an occasion and in this place. 

I bow my head to all the victims of the tyrannical Nazi regime. 

It originated in Germany and claimed millions of victims. 

Here in Auschwitz-Birkenau of all places, where the annihilation of human life was perpetuated by 

monstrous machinery; I say, we are here in remembrance of every single victim. 

We owe it to them and their dignity that was brutally taken from them. 

But, above all, the commitment we owe to the victims is that we will endeavour to ensure that such 

a crime can NEVER be allowed to happen again. 


This historic responsibility places special duties on us all, but especially on Germany. 

The memory of the National Socialist period, of war, genocide and crimes against humanity has 

become deeply ingrained in our national identity. 

Out of this remembrance arises the imperative for democratic Germany to oppose the forces of 

injustice and tyranny, whatever form they may take. 

Out of this remembrance grows Germany's recognition of Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state 

within secure borders. 

This commitment is one of the cornerstones of Germany's foreign policy. 

It is also a fundamental principle of German foreign policy to strive for a viable and independent 

state for the Palestinian people. 

We know that this is a precondition for the establishment and maintenance of permanent peace 

in the Middle East. 

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The death of millions of people, 

The anguish of the survivors, 

The agonies of the victims and 

The resistance of the brave – 

All these are the foundation of our joint mission to create a better future. 

This better future will only be possible without anti-Semitism and racism, without injustice and 

violence. 

That is why I feel deeply honoured that Baron David de Rothschild has invited me to be a patron 

of the Aladdin Project. 

The dialogue between cultures and religions helps us move towards a goal that we all share, namely, 

to live in a world of peace and freedom. 

The purpose of this project is to achieve an objective and sensitive understanding of history. 

This is needed because - all too often - strange, misguided ideas still exist with regard to the Shoah. 

This project works for respectful, humane and, above all, peaceful relations within and between our 

societies. 

We want people of diverse origins, different language and religious backgrounds to be able to share 

a common future and enjoy a life in peace. 

Tolerance, mutual understanding and reconciliation are the lessons we must learn from the Shoah. 

That is the least that we owe to the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

And that is the mission! A mission that is incumbent on us across the generations. 

Thank you.

Annex J 

Message of Dr. Ali Goma’a, Grand Mufti of Egypt, 

to the Aladdin Project on the occasion 

of the visit to Auschwitz 

As there are fewer survivors of the Holocaust to tell their stories today, it is of primary importance 

that these universal lessons be shared with all fellow human beings. Only this will ensure that their 

legacy will continue to promote respect for diversity and human rights for generations to come. 

Wherever minorities are being persecuted, we must raise our voices to protest. The essence of 

this day of commemoration lies in its twofold purpose: one that deals with the memory and 

remembrance of those who were massacred during the Holocaust, and the other with educating 

future generations of its horrors teaching them that we should join our hands together, that we 

are essentially in one boat and that we must do our utmost so that all peoples must enjoy the 

protections and rights that all human begins are entitled to irrespective of their racial, religious or 

ethnic backgrounds. 

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Photo credits: 

p.14 : Serge Klarsfeld in Erbil, Iraq ©The Aladdin Project 

Production supervisor: 

Diana Tey 

Graphic design: 

Kalawave 

p.19 : UNESCO conference for the launch of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah in Persian. French Culture 

Minister Frederic Mitterrand, journalist Philippe Dessaint, Claude Lanzmann, UNESCO Director 

General Irina Bokova, Aladdin Project President Anne-Marie Revcolevschi ©Erez Lichtfeld 

p.21 : Grand Mufti of Bosnia Dr. Mustafa Ceric addressing the international delegation at the 

International Monument in Auschwitz ©Erez Lichtfeld 

p.22 : Press conference at the City Hall of Paris: Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, UN Deputy Secretary 

General Asha-Rose Migiro, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, 

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova ©Erez Lichtfeld 

p.23 : Wreath-laying ceremony in Auschwitz: from left: Irina Bokova, Asha-Rose Migiro, Gerhard 

Schröder, Raphael Esrail, President of the Union of French Deportees to Auschwitz ©Erez Lichtfeld 

Photos in annexes (except photo of Dr. Goma’a) ©Erez Lichtfeld 

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A Call to Conscience 

“A Call to Conscience” is the declaration of principles of the Aladdin Project. It was signed 

by President Abdoulaye Wade, Mr. Jacques Chirac and Mrs. Simone Veil at the launch 

conference of the Aladdin Project on behalf of all the participants. Since then, hundreds 

of intellectuals and public figures from around the world have added their signatures. 

We, women and men in public life, historians, intellectuals and people from all faiths, have come 

together to declare that the defence of values of justice and fraternity must overwhelm all 

obstacles to prevail over intolerance, racism and conflict. 

With every passing day, we witness a rising tide of hatred and violence filling the gulf of misunderstanding. 

This particularly affects the current relations between Muslims and Jews, while for centuries - in Persia, 

throughout the Middle East, in North Africa and across the Ottoman Empire - they lived together 

often in harmony. We say clearly that the Israelis and the Palestinians have a right to their own state, 

their own sovereignty and security and that any peace process with such aims must be supported. 

In the face of ignorance, prejudice and competing memories that we reject, we believe in the power 

of knowledge and the primacy of History. We therefore affirm, beyond all political considerations, our 

determination to defend historical truth, for no peace is built on lies. The Holocaust is a historical fact: 

the genocide in which six million European Jews were exterminated. Its scope is universal, for it was 

the values of dignity and respect for human beings that Nazi Germany and its European accomplices 

sought to destroy. 

To deny this crime against humanity is not only an insult to the memory of the victims, but also an insult 

to the very idea of civilization. Hence, we believe that the teaching of this tragedy concerns all those 

who have at heart the will to prevent further genocides. The same requirement of truth calls on us to 

recall the actions of the Righteous in Europe and in the Arab and Muslim world. Together, we declare 

our common desire to promote a sincere dialogue, open and fraternal. It is in this spirit that we have 

gathered around the Aladdin Project. We call on all men and women of conscience around the world 

to work with us in this common endeavour of shared knowledge, mutual respect and peace. 


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