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The Terezin Commemoration Address

English Pages, 20. 5. 2003

Dear citizens, distinguished guests, 

Every year we gather at this solemn place to remind ourselves and others of the victims of the Nazi regime, as well as to pay them our respects. Their lives were brutally, tragically and pointlessly extinguished on this very land. Six decades ago, thousands of people marched through the gate of the Little Fortress and the Terezin Ghetto, including men, women and children from our country and other European countries. Many of them were transported on to other concentration camps; many never left this gruesome place.

I have emphasized that we meet here every year. I believe that none of us takes this as a formal duty even though today, 58 years after the end of WWII, some young people could perceive it as such. I am a member of the generation whose childhood was marked by the bleak war period. My generation - and, to an even greater degree, the older generation - are still haunted by the specter of the Nazi occupation. They cannot forget about it. They must not, as is fashionable nowadays, be led to believe that events happened in a different manner. 

However, for younger generations, especially members who grew up in the last third of the 20th century, Terezin and its legacy could be little more to them than an academic lesson about an insignificant historical event which must be memorized for school exams. If that happens, the destruction of Terezin's victims will be ultimately absolute.

It is up to us, as parents and grandparents, to constantly remind our children of these events. We must remorselessly insist that the era which we are commemorating today plays a part in our present lives, and it must also play a part in our future. It should be an essential principle to avoid similar tragedies so that memorials such as this one will never have to be erected again. 

I do not bring this up to re-open old wounds left from deep losses that our country suffered.  I bring it up because each generation must learn to understand the causes of suffering, its  substance and its perpetrators. Each generation must derive lessons from that understanding because only then shall members be capable of defending themselves, and those who come after, from the resurrection of evil. 

It must be clear that freedom and democracy cannot be taken for granted, but that they must be cherished. People must not let themselves be lulled into a sense of relative peace and security. The world is not like that and never will be.

Terezin, Auschwitz and Jachymov are at the end of an immensely winding road. At its beginning were strong words which laid the foundation for grandiose projects that, in the name of great ideals, increasingly restricted individual freedoms and the liberty of entire nations. I am constantly calling for vigilance in recognizing such attempts, although they can be hidden under different guises, flags and symbols than those utilized sixty years ago.

With this in mind and with this knowledge, I ask you for humility. I also challenge you to build a future based not on historical crimes and injustices which cannot be undone, but rather on the legacy passed on to us by those who have perished. Actions which are based on hatred and intolerance, or on a desire to control and command people and society, end tragically.

Nine months ago this place was flooded by water. I am very pleased to see that it has regained its dignity, and I would like to thank all those who helped a safe and fast recovery. 

As TV journalists reported news about the evacuation of Terezin last August, we all saw rescuers trying to persuade an older woman to evacuate to safety. She vehemently argued that "the water cannot come all the way here." But it did. Stories about the destruction of the hundred-year water sounded to many like a fairy tale; something that one year ago would have seemed unreal. To young people today, warnings to defend freedom and to beware of dangers that have demonstrated their destructive power in history can also seem unreal and intangible. We cannot allow this to reach a point at which younger generations would assume that the world is secure and free. If this were to happen, we would be threatened once more by a great flood of slavery and violence when it was least expected. 

Terezin and other places which are full of destroyed human fates must not be forgotten. They symbolize our duty to cherish democracy and freedom in our motherland for which they died as martyrs.

Václav Klaus, Terezín, May 18, 2003