Page 2509 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 14 November 1989
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information getting out through the various resistance groups in Eastern Europe, from Czechoslovakia and Poland and from the East where most of the death camps were, that there were death factories there and people were being exterminated, the Allies did nothing to bomb the camps. I think they refused to believe it, did not believe it, or did not want to believe it. For whatever reason, though, nothing really was done which could have perhaps alleviated to some extent the misery of those people in the camps.
Again, that is something that all the wartime Allies, the West and the Soviet Union, can be quite ashamed about. That is something I do not think we should forget. I think it is relevant because twice in the history of the twentieth century - in fact, it depends on who you listen to; maybe there have been some other instances as well - there have been two very noticeable instances of genocide. The most notable one is the event that we are talking about now, the Holocaust, the attempt to wipe out the Jewish race, a race that has been persecuted for the last 20 centuries. Also, of course, more recently, there was another madman, Pol Pot, trying to wipe out his own country.
Mr Collaery: And the Armenians.
MR STEFANIAK: And, as Mr Collaery says, the Armenians, and also the Ibos in Africa. There have been various other problems in Africa of one tribe trying to wipe out other tribes in the last 30 years. Despite the advances in technology and science, it seems that human beings still have a great deal to learn, and I think we should never forget the Holocaust. Certainly, I hope that, whatever happens to Germany, Germans will never forget the Holocaust so that at least that country will never participate in anything like that again.
Holocaust
DR KINLOCH (5.16): Mr Speaker, it has been a joy to have had this debate and I thank Mrs Grassby for beginning it. I welcome, especially across the chamber - a chamber in which we have no walls - the sometimes sharp interchanges. We can have them here, and let us hope there are no walls between us as individuals.
On behalf of the widely dispersed family of Moses McIlwaine, my great-great-grandfather, I welcome the honouring of the Jewish people and the memory of the 1930s. Specifically, I wonder whether you, Mr Speaker, on our behalf - perhaps in conjunction with the Chief Minister - could write to the Ambassador for East Germany to congratulate the government of that country on their action, no matter what we may have felt about them in the past. Equally, could you write to the Ambassador for West Germany to congratulate the West Germans on their efforts
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