LOCAL VIEW: SWEDEN TAKING AN ENLIGHTENED APPROACH; HOLOCAUST-REMEMBRANCE PROGRAM STANDS AS A MODEL FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Byline: H. Eric Schockman

AS we come to the close of this century and enter the new millennium, it is memory - memory of the most tragic events of this century - that must endure so that such horrors are not repeated. Fostering international cooperation in Holocaust education strengthens our ability to absorb and learn from the dark lessons of the past, and is also a prism to teach understanding, tolerance and pluralism to the contemporary generation.

In May 1998, the Swedish, British and United States governments established the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. Germany, Israel, Poland, the Netherlands, France and Italy later joined them. The task force issued a joint declaration stating: ``We are committing our countries to encourage parents, teachers and civic, political and religious leaders to undertake with renewed vigor and attention Holocaust education, remembrance and research, with a special focus on our own countries' histories.''

Sweden, which was officially neutral during World War II, has taken this commitment most seriously in a government-sanctioned, multi-front effort to stimulate discussion of such values as compassion, democracy and the equal value of all people, using the Holocaust as a point of departure. For example, the country has opened up its official archives to the Commission on Jewish Assets in Sweden at the time of the Second World War, issuing an interim report on ``Nazi Gold and the Swedish Ritsbank.'' Sweden has also launched the Living History Project, a very successful country-wide effort to bring sensitive Holocaust education through the Swedish schools and throughout Swedish society. A free publication produced out of the campaign called ``Tell Ye Your Children ...'' is in almost every Swedish household, surpassed in distribution only by the Bible.

At the end of January 2000, Sweden will take another historic step. Prime Minister Goran Persson has invited the task force and almost 50 nations to the Stockholm International Forum on Holocaust Education. The forum's primary goal is to facilitate international dialogue by bringing together high-ranking officials, civic and religious leaders, survivors, educators and other professionals to promote Holocaust education, as well as to invigorate a common recognition of the imperative need to combat racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic hatred and ignorance of the past. At the middle point of this gathering will be the 55th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, perhaps the most famous site and symbol of the Holocaust. There could be no better time to reflect on its implication for our time.

There are several lessons to be learned from all this. Clearly, no country (including ours) has had a glorious history in response to the Holocaust. The role of the ``bystander'' is replete throughout contemporary history. ``Neutral'' countries during World War II are in retrospect in an even more precarious situation. The Swedish model in facing one's past is dramatically in opposition to the tack followed by another European country - Switzerland. The Swiss tried to conceal their history only to be burned by it now, with a tarnished international reputation. The Swedish model, furthermore, can be adopted by other emerging democracies as a vehicle to safeguard poly-cultural societies by reducing prejudice and intolerance.

Lastly, even we in the United States might benefit from examining this model in more detail. In our society, where hatemongers can travel between states looking for innocent Jewish children and ethnic postal workers to slaughter, isn't it strange that there is no mandatory national edict to teach the Holocaust in our schools? In fact, only six states (California is not one of them) have mandates to educationally expose our schoolchildren to Holocaust and genocide studies.

How can we become a more tolerant society without owning up to the lessons of the past?