Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 in Geneva with Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss

My late father, Belsen liberator Leonard Berney, found talking about Belsen very painful immediately after the war. My mother tells me it was a totally taboo subject at home.

Luckily for him, and us, about 40 years after the war ended, he started to talk about it. I assume he found the experience cathartic because he talked about it increasingly as the years went by. I remember him first telling me about it, and my realisation that he had played a pivotal role in a very important moment in history, albeit a highly unpleasant and traumatic one for all concerned.

He eventually wrote a book about his experience at Belsen; his account of the camp's liberation, called Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account. He also started to deliver lectures about his experience and even appeared in two very important Holocaust documentaries in which he was interviewed about liberating the camp: Night Will Fall and No Asylum.

I noticed that, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, a screening of No Asylum (which is about Anne Frank's father's struggle and ultimate failure to get his family out of Holland as the war was approaching) was taking place in Geneva. So I contacted the producer of the documentary, Paula Fouce to ask if I could attend, as Geneva is only a one-hour flight away for me. She told me that the screening would be attended by Eva Schloss, Anne Frank's step sister, who herself was an Auschwitz survivor. Paula also told me that the day after the screening, there would be a special Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in the United Nations General Assembly Hall during which Eva would give an account of her experience before, during and after her time in Auschwitz.

It was such an honour for me to be part of the screening and ceremony and to meet Eva, Paula and all concerned.

Here are a few photos of my time in Geneva for Holocaust Memorial Day.

With Paula Fouce, producer of No Asylum

With Her Excellency Aviva Raz Shechter, Permanent Representative of Israel
to the United Nations Office at Geneva

With Eva Schloss and her grandson Eric Schloss

Showing Eva and Eric Schloss dad's book
Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account

Couldn't help noticing that the carper of the cinema was the same as appears in
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining!

A video message from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres

Eva Schloss giving her keynote address

Former laureates of the Menuhin Competition, violinists Dmitry Smirnov and Anne Luisa Kramb
with pianist Gordon Black, Artistic Director of the Menuhin Competition performing
J.S. Bach, Bloch and Bartók

Everybody wanted a piece of Eva!

Joe Stevens, Eva Schloss and Paula Fouce under the
magnificent United Nations emblem

In front of the iconic Allée des Nations, United Nations Office at Geneva

References:

• Highlight of the week: #Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss showing her prisoner number from concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooed on her arm. Schoolchildren from the Geneva area came to the Palais des Nations to listen to her story. https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/960168569496469506
• Anne Frank’s childhood friend says world still hasn’t learned about genocide | UN News http://ow.ly/5Hjd30in5Po
• 2018 International Holocaust Remembrance Day http://ow.ly/4jIx30in60f

• No Asylum: The Untold Chapter in Anne Frank’s Story | Ciné-ONU http://ow.ly/AbIl30in6ev
• Musical #violin performance during  #HolocaustRememberanceDay  @UNGeneva by former Menuhin Competition laureates: Anne Luisa Krumb, Dimitry Smirnov, accompanied on piano by Gordon Back https://twitter.com/orbisswissphoto/status/958116817993641984
• United Nations News: Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and childhood friend of Anne Frank has a message for the world about genocide: “We haven’t really learned.” https://www.facebook.com/UN.News.Centre/posts/10155430983106872
• Ciné-ONU #Geneva screening documentary film “No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of #AnneFrank Story,” with Eva Schloss and Paula Fouce. https://twitter.com/orbisswissphoto/status/957622069730127872
• Remembrance & Beyond: Eva Schloss at the United Nations – Reimagine Earth http://ow.ly/CVK130in6Rx by Eric Schloss, Eva Schloss's grandson

Libya and the U.N. Resolution No. 1973

Libya
image: yourchildlearns.com

As I See It………

by L. Berney

THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER states:

Chapter I - Purposes and Principles

Article 1

The Purposes of the United Nations are:

To maintain international peace and security among nations, . . .
2. To develop friendly relations among nations . . .
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems. . .
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations . . .

Article 2

7. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state . . .

Chapter VII - Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression

Article 42

Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 (Economic measures) would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations.

Article 43

1. All Members of the United Nations, in order to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security, undertake to make available to the Security Council, on its call and in accordance with a special agreement or agreements, armed forces, assistance, and facilities, including rites of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.

UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Extracts from the Declaration on Rights and Duties of States

Article 1

Every State has the right to independence and hence to exercise freely, without dictation by any other State, all its legal powers, including the choice of its own form of government.

Article 2

Every State has the right to exercise jurisdiction over its territory and over all persons and things therein, subject to the immunities recognized by international law.

Article 3

Every State has the duty to refrain from intervention in the internal or external affairs of any other State.

Article 9

Every State has the duty to refrain from resorting to war as an instrument of national policy, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with international law and order.


NEVERTHELESS, AND IN SPITE OF THE WORDING ABOVE, THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTED RESOLUTION Nº 1973

Security Council Resolution Nº 1973 on the situation in Libya, is a measure that was adopted on 17 March 2011 based, it claims, on Chapter VII of the UN Charter (See Articles 42 and 43 above). The resolution was proposed by France, Lebanon, and the United Kingdom.

Ten Security Council members voted in the affirmative (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Gabon, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa, and permanent members France, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Five (Brazil, Germany, and India, and permanent members China and Russia) abstained, with none opposed.

The resolution demands "an immediate ceasefire" and authorizes the international community to establish a “no-fly zone” over Libya and to use “all means necessary” short of foreign occupation to protect civilians.

MY PERSONAL CONCLUSION

From the extracts quoted above, it is clear that the function of the United Nations is to deal with international problems between nations, not to intervene in problems of civil unrest and revolutions within nations.

It is apparent to me that under the provisions of the Charter. . .

• the State of Libya has NOT requested the U.N. to intervene.

• the State of Libya HAS THE RIGHT to exercise jurisdiction over its own territory

• the situation there IS essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the State of Libya.

• it IS within the people of Libya’s right to choose their own form of government

And that, again under the provisions of the Charter, the situation within Libya . . .

• is NOT a threat to international peace and security among nations.

• does NOT give other states the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of Libya.

• does NOT give the right of any state to threaten or to use force against Libya’s territorial integrity or political independence.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the situation there, the UN Charter does NOT give the UN the right to resort to war against Libya.

Resolution Nº 1973 contravenes the UN Charter.

L.Berney

March 2011