Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - Denial of the Holocaust Motion - 30th January 2007

Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - Denial of the Holocaust: Motion - 30th January 2007
Senator Norris: I was aware of the preparation of the motions by Deputy Higgins and indicated that I would be happy to second them if such a formality was necessary. Everyone else doubtless feels the same.
The motion is appropriate in its timing. Ireland was a signatory of the Stockholm Declaration in 1998 which committed countries to an annual commemoration of the Holocaust. A number of committee members attended the commemoration at the Mansion House at the weekend. I was asked to read at the event.
None of our hands is clean. Ireland closed its doors, even to the children of the Holocaust, despite the appeals of people such as Deputy Briscoe who was close to Mr. de Valera. The piece I was asked to read was similarly shocking; it was about a boat that had left Hamburg in 1939 and travelled to Cuba, where people were to await the processing of visas to the United States. Agitation was raised by the owners of the principal newspapers and the President refused landing rights to those passengers, except for a couple of American citizens. They sailed so close to the coast of America that they could see the lights of Miami but the boat was turned back, despite appeals to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and returned to Hamburg. Most of the passengers perished subsequently in the death camps.
Senator Mooney: A film, “The SS St. Louis”, was made about that event.
Senator Norris: It was shocking.
It is important that we pass the motion and I commend Deputy Higgins for tabling it. It is particularly important in view of the highly provocative conference held in Tehran. In the note we received it is stated no historian of any repute attended. That is true but I wonder if it might not have been better if every decent, reputable scholar had attended and swamped it with information on the Holocaust which is utterly incontrovertible and shamed those responsible for organising the conference. I salute those wonderful and courageous students of Tehran University who protested at great risk to themselves outside the conference. That takes guts. It is comparatively easy for us to pass resolutions but it is not easy to be in such a closed and dangerous society and publicly protest against this blasphemy. It was blasphemy to hold an exhibition of cartoons with the collected works of David Irving labelled “Truth” and Auschwitz labelled “Myth”. It is also instructive that representatives of all the EU member states were invited to the opening but boycotted it.
I have just received an invitation from the Iranian ambassador to Ireland to a cocktail party in his residence. I intend this afternoon to return it with an accompanying note that I hope he will read. I hope other members will follow the spirit of the EU ambassadors and not attend this jollification. It is not appropriate to party with these people, although like Deputy Mulcahy, I have no difficulty with people travelling to Iran. It is important to go and meet the people there. A real indicator of our moral disapproval of the regime and its attitudes should be shown by a refusal to attend the party.
There is a motion on the Order Paper for the Seanad in my name and that of Senator Ross similar to this one, to which I am confident there will be no opposition. I commend Deputy Higgins for tabling the motion and add my voice to it. It appears it will be passed unanimously, which will be a good day’s work.