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.
Back to January/February 2005 Speeches |
