The Seventy Years Declaration

{{see also|Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism|double genocide theory}}

During the Cold War, the theory of two totalitarianisms, fascism and communism, gained popularity in the Western world, for example through the work of Hannah Arendt (notably her influential book The Origins of Totalitarianism) and other scholars, such as Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who argued that Nazi and Soviet regimes were equally totalitarian.Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (2nd edn 1967) According to Volker Berghahn, "as Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski later put it in their classic analysis of the totalitarian paradigm that came to sweep the board in Western ideological discourse in the 1950s, Nazism and Stalinism were "basically alike" and represented very modern and brutally destructive versions of twentieth-century dictatorship."Volker R. Berghahn, "Philanthropy and diplomacy in the American century," in Michael J. Hogan (ed.), The Ambiguous Legacy: U. S. Foreign Relations in the "American Century", p. 389

Since the end of the Cold War, eastern and central European countries have established institutes and enacted laws to address crimes committed by former totalitarian regimes in their countries, both communist and fascist. Examples include the Czech state Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Polish state Institute of National Remembrance, the Lithuanian state Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, the German state Hannah Arendt Institute for the Research on Totalitarianism and the Hungarian state House of Terror museum. The theory of two totalitarianisms also gained new popularity in the West during the 1990s, especially after the publication of the 1997 French book The Black Book of Communism, which said that "the genocide of a "class" may well be tantamount to the genocide of a "race,"" arguing that deaths caused by Hitler's and Stalin's regimes were "equal". In its introduction, Stéphane Courtois argued that communism and national socialism are slightly different totalitarian systems, that communism is responsible for the murder of about 100 million people during the 20th century, that the National Socialists adopted their repressive methods from Soviet methods, and that "a single-minded focus on the Jewish genocide in an attempt to characterize the Holocaust as a unique atrocity has [...] prevented the assessment of other episodes of comparable magnitude in the Communist world".{{cite book |title= The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression | editor1-last = Courtois | editor1-first = Stéphane | editor1-link =Stéphane Courtois |year= 1999 |publisher= Harvard University Press |isbn= 0-674-07608-7 |page= 9 }} The United States Congress claimed in 1993 that 100,000,000 victims died in "an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust," establishing the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.{{cite news | last=Rauch | first=Jonathan | work=The Atlantic | date=December 2003 | title=The Forgotten Millions | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200312/rauch | access-date=November 4, 2009}}

An increased emphasis on the crimes of communism after the end of communism resulted in the 2006 Council of Europe resolution 1481, which condemned the "individual and collective assassinations and executions, death in concentration camps, starvation, deportations, torture, slave labour and other forms of mass physical terror" perpetrated by communist regimes,{{Cite web |url=http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=%2FDocuments%2FAdoptedText%2Fta06%2FEres1481.htm |title=Council of Europe resolution 1481 |access-date=2018-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409103345/http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=%2FDocuments%2FAdoptedText%2Fta06%2FEres1481.htm |archive-date=2014-04-09 |url-status=live }} and in early 2008, the European Union initiated the European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes. In mid-2008, the Czech government initiated the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, signed by Václav Havel, Joachim Gauck, and others. It endorsed the idea of "Europe-wide condemnation of, and education about, the crimes of communism."{{cite web |url= http://www.rferl.org/content/interview_how_much_does_west_know_about_communist_crimes/24358883.html |title= How Much Do Western Europeans Know About Communist Crimes? |author= Charles Recknagel |date= 13 October 2011 |publisher= Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111208225401/http://www.rferl.org/content/interview_how_much_does_west_know_about_communist_crimes/24358883.html | archive-date = 8 December 2011 |url-status= live |access-date=2012-02-02}} As proposed by the declaration, the European Parliament in 2008–2009 with approval of all political factions designated the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism as "a Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, to be commemorated with dignity and impartiality,"{{cite web |url= http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-0439+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN |title= Declaration of the European Parliament on the proclamation of 23 August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism |publisher= Europa.eu |access-date= 2011-05-10 }}{{cite web |url= http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2009-0213+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN |title= European Parliament resolution of 2 April 2009 on European conscience and totalitarianism |publisher= Europa.eu |access-date= 2011-05-10 }} and a remembrance day for victims of totalitarian regimes was also adopted by Canada.{{cite web |url= https://www.ctvnews.ca/aug-23-to-become-black-ribbon-day-of-remembrance-1.459906 |title= Aug. 23 to become Black Ribbon Day of remembrance |date= 1 December 2009 |publisher= CTV.ca | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120119045933/http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20091201/black_ribbon_091201/ |access-date= 2011-05-10 |url-status= live | archive-date= 19 January 2012 }} In 2009, the European Parliament endorsed the recognition of "Communism, Nazism and fascism as a shared legacy," reconfirmed "its united stand against all totalitarian rule from whatever ideological background," and condemned "strongly and unequivocally all crimes against humanity and the massive human rights violations committed by all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes." The remembrance day was endorsed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in its 2009 Vilnius Declaration, which said that "in the twentieth century European countries experienced two major totalitarian regimes, Nazi and Stalinist, which brought about genocide, violations of human rights and freedoms, war crimes and crimes against humanity" and condemned "the glorification of the totalitarian regimes, including the holding of public demonstrations glorifying the Nazi or Stalinist past."{{cite web |url=http://www.oscepa.org/images/stories/documents/activities/1.Annual%20Session/2009_Vilnius/Final_Vilnius_Declaration_ENG.pdf |title=Vilnius Declaration of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and resolutions adopted at the eighteenth annual session |date= June 29 – July 3, 2009 |publisher=Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCEPA) |access-date=2011-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111155028/http://www.oscepa.org/images/stories/documents/activities/1.Annual%20Session/2009_Vilnius/Final_Vilnius_Declaration_ENG.pdf |archive-date=2010-01-11 |url-status=dead }} The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union also endorsed the establishment of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, as conceived by the Prague Declaration, by the governments of the Visegrád Group, the Polish EU presidency and several European state institutes, as an EU educational project to increase awareness about totalitarian crimes and to "prevent intolerance, extremism, anti-democratic movements and the recurrence of any totalitarian rule in the future."{{cite web|url=http://www.memoryandconscience.eu/2011/10/20/czech-prime-minister-petr-necas-the-years-of-totalitarianism-were-years-of-struggle-for-liberty/ |title=Czech Prime minister Petr Nečas: The years of totalitarianism were years of struggle for liberty |publisher=Memoryandconscience.eu |date=20 October 2011 |access-date=2011-10-24}} The Greens–European Free Alliance argued that "the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism should be the common basis for the research on and evaluation of communist regimes in all countries in East-Europe."{{cite web |url= http://www.europeanagenda.eu/events/23043.php?zurueck=8-2009 |title= Totalitarian Regimes and The Opening of The Secret Files Archives in Central and Eastern Europe |date= 18 September 2008 |publisher= European Agenda |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111219153343/http://www.europeanagenda.eu/events/23043.php?zurueck=8-2009 |archive-date= 2011-12-19 |access-date= 2011-05-10 |url-status= dead }}

The Prague Declaration was opposed by Russian bodies and organisations affiliated with Vladimir Putin's government, such as the Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests and World Without Nazism. It was also opposed by several European communist parties, such as the Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Party of Britain. There were isolated critiques of the Prague Declaration in 2009 by (in chronological order of appearance in print): Dovid Katz, formerly professor of Yiddish at Vilnius University, who founded the web journal Defending History in part to oppose the Prague Declaration; Israeli activist Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office; British MP John Mann, who termed it a "sinister document", Anti-German{{Cite web|url=http://www.redaktion-bahamas.org/auswahl/web64-2.html|title = Bahamas - Doch ein Ehrenmann}} political scientist Clemens Heni, and others.Dovid Katz in 2009 op-eds in the [http://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/prague%E2%80%99s-declaration-disgrace Jewish Chronicle] and [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0530/1224247744866.html?via=mr Irish Times]. He was followed by [http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=148409 Efraim Zuroff in the Jerusalem Post], [http://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/21392/europe-must-focus-baltic-hate John Mann in the Jewish Chronicle], [http://clemensheni.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/the-prague-declaration-holocaust-obfuscation-and-antisemitism/ and Clemens Heni]. A collection of links to opposition to the Prague Declaration is provided on [http://defendinghistory.com/prague-declaration/opposition a page of Defending History]. The Prague Declaration was also criticised by eurosceptic John Laughland, who has instead compared the EU to Nazism.Conference of World Without Nazism, 9 October 2012, Strasbourg However, there has also been support for the Prague Declaration from Israeli academics such as Barry Rubin{{cite web |url= http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=184542 |title= Those who neglect their past have no future |author=Barry Rubin |author-link=Barry Rubin |date= 13 August 2010 |publisher= The Jerusalem Post |access-date= 2011-05-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023155426/http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=184542 |archive-date=2012-10-23}} and Lithuanian centrist politician Emanuelis Zingeris, a former honorary chairman of that country's Jewish community.

By the initiative of Katz, Danny Ben-Moshe drafted the Seventy Years Declaration as a response to the Prague Declaration. Seventy members of the European Parliament from 19 EU countries signed it on 20 January 2012, to mark the seventieth anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference in Berlin that had decided on the "Final Solution" (genocide) of European Jewry.

The text of the Seventy Years Declaration was published on 20 January 2012 in Defending History, and subsequently in European languages.Danny Ben-Moshe, [http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=254222 "Remembering Wannsee"], The Jerusalem Post, 18 January 2012Dovid Katz, [http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/02/03/the-seventy-years-declaration-and-the-simple-truth/ "The Seventy Years Declaration and the Simple Truth"], Algemeiner Journal, 3 February 2012 Its distribution was reported by Roger Cohen in the New York Times,Roger Cohen, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/opinion/the-suffering-olympics.html?_r=0 "The Suffering Olympics"], The New York Times, 30 January 2012 Danna Harman in Haaretz,Danna Harman, [http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/european-leaders-to-mark-70th-anniversary-of-nazi-wannsee-conference-1.408220 "European leaders to mark 70th anniversary of Nazi Wannsee Conference"], Haaretz, 19 January 2012 Frank Brendle in Taz.de,Frank Brendle, [http://www.taz.de/!85961/ "Der Holocaust ist einzigartig/The Holocaust is unique"], taz.de, 19 January 2012 among others. In 2013, its own website was launched. The Declaration forms part of the subject material of the documentary movie Rewriting History, which premiered on Australian television in September 2012.Graeme Blundell, [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/television/lithuanias-lies-and-deception-exposed/story-fncnqfdm-1226473912101 "Lithuania’s Lies and Deception Exposed"], The Australian, 14 September 2012Ian Cuthbertson, [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/television/rewriting-history-when-truth-is-the-enemy/story-fncnjrwn-1226467535411 "Rewriting History: When Truth is the Enemy"], The Australian, 8 September 2012Tim Elliott, [http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-guide/friday-september-14-20120908-25ksd.html "Free to Air"], The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 September 2012Hobart Mercury, [http://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Hobert-Mercury-14-September-2012.pdf "When Truth is the Enemy - in Time Out"], The Hobart Mercury, 14 September 2012Nicholas Soames, [http://www.surfcoastnews.com.au/2012/09/14/rewriting-history-documentary-screens-tonight-on-sbs/ "Rewriting History documentary Screens Tonight"], The Surf Coast News,14 September 2012

The Seventy Years Declaration condemns Stalinist tyranny and proposes distinct, separate recognition of the various European tragedies of the 20th century. The SYD explicitly rejects the Prague Declaration and its "attempts to obfuscate the Holocaust by diminishing its uniqueness and deeming it to be equal, similar or equivalent to Communism."

The Declaration also opposes various alleged East European attempts to glorify Nazi collaborator organisations, specifically mentioning the honouring of the Waffen SS in Estonia and Latvia, and the Lithuanian Activist Front in Lithuania. It acknowledges the need to honour Jewish partisans who joined the battle against Hitler, a reference to Lithuanian government efforts to prosecute Holocaust Survivors who joined the resistance. The Declaration opposes attempts to extend the definition of "genocide" to encompass sundry crimes of totalitarian regimes, endorsing instead a strict definition in the spirit of the 1948 definition.

The Seventy Years Declaration was presented to Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, on 14 March 2012.European Parliament Video, [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the-president/ressource/static/videos/lr_82876w.mp4?epbox&gallery=gal133060724907557611082 "Martin Schulz, European Parliament President meeting with Dovid Katz. Handing over of the Declaration on the Final Solution of the Wannsee Conference 70th anniversary."], European Parliament Press, Strasbourg, 14 March 2012European Parliament Transcript, [http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/services/showShotlist.do?filmRef=82876&out=HTML&lg=en&src=1 "Martin SCHULZ, EP President, meeting with Dovid KATZ: - Handing over of the Declaration on the Final Solution of the Wannsee Conference"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131112707/http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/services/showShotlist.do?filmRef=82876&out=HTML&lg=en&src=1 |date=2013-01-31 }}, European Commission, Strasbourg, 14 March 2012

Israeli academic Barry Rubin has written, referring to the initiators of the Seventy Years Declaration, that "a relentless campaign has been waged by a tiny group of people to persuade Jews and Israelis to oppose the June 3, 2008 Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, as if it were some horrible anti-Semitic document. This is a slanderously wrong claim."

The Seventy Years Declaration was criticized by the Lithuanian foreign minister Audronius Ažubalis, who said in response that "It is not possible to find differences between Hitler and Stalin except in their moustaches (Hitler's was shorter)."{{cite web|title= A. Ažubalis: apgailėtina pasirašyti deklaraciją, atmetančią nacių ir sovietų nusikaltimų sulyginimą |url= http://www.lzinios.lt/Lietuvoje/A.Azubalis-apgailetina-pasirasyti-deklaracija-atmetancia-naciu-ir-sovietu-nusikaltimu-sulyginima |publisher= lzinios.lt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012131527/http://www.lzinios.lt/Lietuvoje/A.Azubalis-apgailetina-pasirasyti-deklaracija-atmetancia-naciu-ir-sovietu-nusikaltimu-sulyginima|date=20 January 2012|url-status= dead |archive-date=12 October 2016}} The response came in anger at the fact that eight Lithuanian Social Democrats (two MEPs and six MPs) signed the Declaration. A heated debate ensued when a subsequent article by AžubalisAudronius Ažubalis - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, [http://www.delfi.lt/news/ringas/politics/aazubalis-gerb-v-andriukaiti-v-havelas-ne-antisemitas-o-holokausto-tragedija-ne-zaislas-jusu-rinkiminiam-sou.d?id=55029753 "Havel was not an Antisemite, and the Tragedy of the Holocaust is Not a Toy in Your Election Game"], Delfi, 3 February 2012 was replied to by MP Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis,Vytenis Povilas _ Lithuanian MP, [http://www.delfi.lt/news/ringas/politics/vandriukaitis-gerbiamas-a-azubali-ar-is-balos-toks-istorijos-supratimas.d?id=55305479 "Honorable A. Ažubalis, Did You Pull Such an Understanding of History out of Thin Air?"], Delfi, 9 February 2012A Lithuanian radio debate on the subject, [http://ziniur.lt/archyvas/2012/8/raktas/15754/ar-komunistai-zude-humaniskiau-negu-naciai "Can the Holocaust be compared with Communist crimes?"], Žinių radijas, 31 January 2012 then an opposition spokesman on foreign affairs. The foreign minister's "moustache comparison" resulted in individual letters of praise from British MP Denis MacShane{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} to each of the eight Lithuanian signatories, and to reportage in the New York Times.

{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seventy Years Declaration}}

Category:Commemoration of communist crimes

Category:Commemoration of Nazi crimes

Category:2012 in Europe

Category:2012 documents

Category:2012 controversies

Category:Manifestos