The Forum is to be held to mark 70 Years since die Kristallnacht.

Date of the event: November 10, 2008

Location: Brussels, Belgium

The more time that passes since the Shoah, the fewer witnesses and memories remain, and the more people dare to publicly deny the tragedy. The world has become indifferent to statements of politicians and heads of state threatening to exterminate entire races and nations.

At the first forum in Krakow, we analysed the roots of the Holocaust. Through Babi Yar, we arrived at die Kristallnacht in Germany, which marked the onset of the tragedy.

For this reason, we must remember all tragedies.

Goals of the third Let My People Live! Forum:

To demonstrate the importance of die Kristallnacht as the pre-condition for the active stage of Holocaust, marking a final transition from popular anti-Semitism to the implementation of the Judenfrei Germany concept; as the first link in the chain that led to the global massacre of World War II. Die Kristallnacht encouraged Nazis to continue their atrocities against Jews (and non-Jews), including the Babi Yar tragedy and concentration camps in Buchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka and other death sites.

Die Kristallnacht was the beginning of the road to hell. Babi Yar was the next step on this road – executions of Jews turned into mass murders claiming tens of thousands of lives. This road brought the world to Auschwitz, apotheosis of senseless extermination of millions of people.

The Forum will emphasize the global importance of fighting xenophobia and its acutest form, anti-Semitism. It will also attract the attention of the global community and political leaders to the need to confront the recent escalation of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Europe and all over the world, as well as the potential consequences of failing to do so, by using the example of die Kristallnacht and its aftermath.

This goal is the key message of all Let My People Live! forums.

The Forum will draw up a resolution underscoring the joint stand of world political and public leaders on confronting xenophobia, ethnic, religious and cultural intolerance, as well as their will to elaborate a common approach to addressing this issue.

Our outlined goals and tasks, as well as a number of important factors, including the escalation of nationalism and anti-Semitism, convince us of the need to fight xenophobia and promote tolerance in Europe and the world. These factors guarantee the forum’s significance and will help secure the support of European and world leaders, as well as major international political and public organisations.

It is vital to realise and remember how die Kristallnacht happened, what factors were behind it, and why one of the most developed and educated European nations turned insane in the blink of an eye. Germans who had lived peacefully with Jews suddenly succumbed to Nazi propaganda and believed that Jews were second class citizens, inferior people, and the nation’s worst enemies hindering German prosperity.

The main message of the forum’s organisers is not to remind Germans of their guilt, but to make the global community understand that the countries in Europe and all over the world are responsible for Hitler’s crimes. While Hitler organised the extermination of Jews and other “racially inferior” citizens, European leaders and nations remained indifferent to Nazi policy and did not hinder it, thus allowing Hitler to commit his crimes.