Photo of the exhibit "Vienna's Conscience: Close-Ups and Conversations after Hitler"
To mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, United Nations Information Service (UNIS) Vienna launched the exhibit "Vienna's Conscience: Close-Ups and Conversations after Hitler", based on a book with the same title by the late Richard Winter, Susan Winter Balk and Gregory Weeks. UN staff members, students, and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the diplomatic corps, and the media attended the ceremony held in the rotunda of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) on 27 January 2009.
After opening remarks by the UNIS Vienna Deputy Director, the Chair of the International Task Force for Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research addressed the approximately one hundred guests on his personal experiences about the Holocaust and on the role of the task force.
The VIC choir and Yehuda Halevi music school presented a choral medley, tenor Yigal Altshuler performed a moving prayer song, and the Student Council President of the Vienna International School delivered the Secretary-General’s message of the Day.
Susan Winter Balk recounted her late husband Richard Winter's vision and philosophy, stressing it was not important to lay blame on anyone, but to seek answers to difficult questions. Balk also spoke of her continuing effort to help people come to terms with difficult and traumatic experiences by talking about them and seeking dialogue.
Dr. Gregory Weeks of Webster University rounded off the event with a brief historical review of the genesis of the day of commemoration, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN genocide convention.