Remembering the Past, Safeguarding the Future

记住历史，保卫未来

By John Kerry

约翰·克里

“It was so terrible. It was hard for the mind to absorb it.” Those were the words of U.S. Master Sergeant Marvin Josephs as he entered Buchenwald on April 12, 1945, along with military chaplain Rabbi Herschel Schachter.

1945年4月12日，美军军士长马文·约瑟夫斯与随军牧师赫歇尔·沙克特拉比走进布痕瓦尔德时说：“太可怕了。令人难以置信。”

Decades later, Josephs still remembered vividly the words “You’re free” reverberating from Rabbi Schachter’s bullhorn. He remembered seeing the crematoria and the house of the commandant and his notorious wife, Ilse Koch, the “Beast of Buchenwald.” Above all, he remembered the survivors—emaciated and tortured—coming forward at the sound of the rabbi’s bullhorn.

历经数十载后，约瑟夫斯依然清楚地记得从沙克特拉比的扩音器中传出的“你们自由了”这句余音不绝的话语。他记得当时看到的焚尸房以及那里的指挥官和他外号“布痕瓦尔德的野兽”的臭名昭著的妻子伊尔斯·科赫的住房。他记得最清楚的则是那些幸存者——瘦骨嶙峋、备受折磨——听到拉比的喊话后走上前来。

The scenes of liberated prisoners were so overwhelming that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered every man in the U.S. 4th Armored Division to walk the grounds of Buchenwald. Josephs immediately understood why: “He didn’t want people to ever deny what happened.”

解放囚犯的场面极如此震撼人心，使得德怀特·艾森豪威尔将军命令美军第4装甲师的每一个人在布痕瓦尔德集中营里走一遭。约瑟夫斯立刻领会了他的用意：“他不想让人们有朝一日否认所发生的一切。”

Nearly 70 years after World War Two ended, 70 years after the world’s collective horror at the Holocaust, anti-Semitism remains a global menace. It is not enough to remember the millions of innocent lives lost in one of the darkest chapters in all of world history. We must reaffirm our vow never to forget the evil that comes from bigotry and intolerance and turn that commitment into action.

第二次世界大战结束近70年后，在全世界一同经历了大屠杀的恐怖的70年之后，反犹太主义依然是一项全球性威胁。仅仅缅怀在整个世界历史上最黑暗的一个时期中丧生的数百万无辜生命是不够的。我们必须重申我们的誓言——永远不忘偏执和不宽容所造成的邪恶，并将这个承诺化为行动。

Many of us in the United States have personal and family connections to this difficult history —and to the cause of action now. My brother’s interest in our family’s genealogy took him back to the Czech Republic just months ago to learn more about the history of ancestors we had never even heard about until the last decade, stories of a great uncle Otto and his sister Jenni who perished in the Holocaust.

我们美国的很多人与这段惨痛的历史——以及当前的行动路线——有着个人和家庭的联系。出于对我们家族家谱的兴趣，我的兄弟数月前刚去过捷克共和国，更多地了解了直到上个10年我们还从未听说过的祖先的历史，一位名叫奥托的叔伯祖父和他的姐妹詹妮死于大屠杀的故事。

I’ll never forget, on my first trip to Berlin as Secretary of State, meeting with a group of young Germans. They told me something I never knew about the city where I’d spent time growing up in the aftermath of World War Two. Throughout the city, they’ve placed “stumbling stones” to mark where Jews were murdered in the streets and other victims of the Holocaust. Every day, passers-by remember what happened—and equally important—they never forget or deny it.

我永远不会忘记在我作为国务卿首次出访柏林时与一批年轻德国人的会面。他们告诉我一些我从未听说过的有关该城市的事情，而我是在二次大战后在那里长大的。他们在整个城市放置了“绊脚石”，以标出犹太人和大屠杀的其他受害者当街被杀害的位置。每天，过路的人都会记住发生过什么——同样重要的是——他们永远不会忘记或否认发生过的事。

Holocaust Remembrance Day calls us to condemn anti-Semitism in every form—whether it’s the disturbing rise of xenophobic and anti-Semitic parties in Europe or the uptick of violence against Jewish people anywhere in the world.

国际大屠杀纪念日敦促我们谴责各种形式的反犹太主义——不论是欧洲的仇外和反犹太党派令人不安的抬头，还是世界任何地方针对犹太人的暴力的升级。

The EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights 2013 Report on Anti-Semitism underscores the stakes. One third of those surveyed experienced some form of anti-Semitic harassment over the past five years, with 26 percent enduring verbal assault or harassment over the past year alone— just because they were Jewish.

欧盟基本权利局发布的《2013年反犹太主义报告》突显了种种风险。接受调查的人中有三分之一在过去五年中经历过某种形式的反犹太人的骚扰，单在过去一年里就有26%的人遭受过言语攻击或骚扰——仅仅因为他们是犹太人。

What’s more, 4 percent reported physical violence and 23 percent said they avoid Jewish events or sites because they don’t feel safe.

此外，4%的人报告遭到人身暴力，23%的人表示由于感到不安全，他们避免参加犹太人的活动或去相关的地点。

Of course, the numbers don’t tell the full story.

当然，这些数字只是冰山一角。

In Italy, police are tracking down the culprit who sent pig heads last week to Rome’s Grand Synagogue, the Israeli Embassy, and a museum sponsoring a Holocaust exhibit.

在意大利，警方正在追查上周把猪头送至位于罗马的犹太会堂、以色列大使馆以及举办大屠杀展览的一家博物馆的罪犯。

In Romania, a government-owned television channel aired a profoundly anti-Semitic Christmas song, which claimed that Jews are only good “in the chimney as smoke.”

在罗马尼亚，一家政府拥有的电视台播放了一首极度反犹太人的圣诞歌曲，歌曲唱道，犹太人只配当“烟囱中的烟”。

If these acts of hate don’t hit you in the gut, I don’t know what will. If this isn’t a call to action, I don’t know what is.

如果这些仇恨行为不令人痛心疾首的话，我不知道还有什么会。如果这不能促使我们采取行动，我不知道还有什么能。

We need to be forceful about what is right and what is wrong. But we also need to work to recognize our common humanity in others, and to start the conversations that will help others recognize ours.

我们必须更坚决地阐明是非。但我们也必须努力认识到他人与我们的共同人性，并开启帮助他人认识到我们拥有的共同人性的对话。

That’s why the Obama Administration has launched the Atrocities Prevention Board. That’s why we’re working hand in glove with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide so that we can detect and highlight this global scourge.

正因为如此，欧巴马政府发起了防止暴行委员会。正因为如此，我们正在与美国大屠杀遇难者纪念馆防止种族灭绝中心密切合作，以便能够发现并曝光这一全球性祸患。

And that’s why, last year, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ira Forman and President Obama’s Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Rashad Hussain joined an historic interfaith visit to the concentration camps at Dachau and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

也正因为如此，去年，监控及打击反犹太主义活动特使艾拉·福曼与欧巴马总统派驻伊斯兰合作组织的特使拉沙德·侯赛因参加了不同宗教团体一同对达豪和奥斯威辛-比克瑙集中营进行的具有历史意义的跨宗教访问。

The United States is committed to having the difficult conversations across cultures and religions that can actually change people’s opinions. Pope Francis calls it “the dialogue of life,” and we reaffirm today that there are indeed millions of lives that depend on it.

美国致力于进行能真正改变人们观念的跨文化和跨宗教的艰难对话。教皇弗朗西斯将其称为“生命对话”。我们今天重申，确实有数百万的生命有赖于此。

We—each of us—have a responsibility to stand up and affirm human dignity. In an interconnected world, anti-Semitism that goes unanswered anywhere is a threat to people everywhere. That is a collective challenge we all face in the 21st century.

我们——我们中的每一个人——都有责任坚决重申人类的尊严。在一个互连互通的世界上，反犹太主义若在任何一个地方肆虐，便会对所有地方的人民构成威胁。这是我们在21世纪共同面临的挑战。