Remarks by
The Honourable John Harvard, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
Walking on -
Remembering Mauthausen's Photo Exhibit
Berney Theatre, Asper Jewish Community Campus
Monday, January 17, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
Your Excellency, friends of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, believers
in the importance of remembering, thank you for the opportunity to participate
in Raoul Wallenberg Day and the opening of Walking On – Remembering Mauthausen.
It’s appropriate that tonight’s ceremony began as it did, with a candle-lighting ceremony by the
young participants in the March of the Living.
Candles are so richly symbolic. They represent both memory and hope. They provide illumination in
the darkness and yet they flicker, in need of protection, sometimes appearing on the verge of being extinguished.
Memory needs to be nurtured from generation to generation, just as a candle flame needs to be protected.
Cathrine Stukhard’s photographs, presented by the Jewish Federation of
Winnipeg, with the support of His Excellency Otto Ditz, Austrian ambassador
and the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior, remind us all that
while memory can seem fragile, it is also powerful. Her photographs challenge
us. They compel us to remember things that, fortunately, most of us cannot
begin to imagine.
And it is only by keeping the candle of memory burning brightly that we can hope to keep the
candle of hope illuminated.
To commit ourselves to eradicating the evils of hatred and intolerance in our own time, we must
remember how those evils have flourished, not so long ago.
Programs like the March of the Living and the Raoul Wallenberg Day workshops on human rights held
today at the Gray Academy are essential to ensure that a new generation remembers the lessons of the
Holocaust and is committed to respect for human dignity and to act courageously against hatred and prejudice.
As Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, it fills me with hope for our province
and our nation to see a cross section of this community, from all faiths
and ages and walks of life, committed to remembering Mauthausen and opposing
all that it represents.
Thank you.
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