UN News

Some were workers, some teachers, some neighbours. Many ordinary people enabled the Holocaust simply by doing their jobs. Some made the choice to help, while others decided to join in with the persecution, betraying Jewish friends and classmates.  But what “fuelled the Holocaust was antisemitism” which didn’t end with the defeat of the Nazis, and “continues today”, affecting all of society.

That’s according to Tad Stahnke, William and Sheila Konar Director of International Educational Outreach, part of the William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education, at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  He was at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the Holocaust Remembrance Week and spoke to UN News’s Ana Carmo.

Mr. Stahnke started by talking about the Memorial Museum’s exhibition “Some were Neighbours”, which examines the role of ordinary people in the Holocaust, and the variety of motives that influenced individual choices. The traveling exhibit will be on view at the UN in New York, until 23 February, and across the world through the UN Information Centres.

The Desert Locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa could provoke a humanitarian crisis, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.  

Charlotta Lomas asked FAO senior locust forecasting officer Keith Cressman to provide an update on what he described as “a very, very scary phenomena”. 

The challenges facing cities will be highlighted at the World Urban Forum, held in Abu Dhabi between February 8 and 13.

Before he left for the conference , Haoliang Xu, Director of the UNDP's Department of Policy and Programme Support, sat down with Matt Wells from UN News.

• UNHCR suspends work at transit site in Libya 

Following a five-day visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where instability, inter-communal violence and disease continues to take a heavy toll, the human rights situation there is showing signs of improvement, said High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet.  At the end of her visit this week, the High Commissioner spoke exclusively to Radio Okapi, the Francophone radio station run by the UN Mission in the country, MONUSCO. 

Dan Pavel Doghi, Senior Adviser on Roma and Sinti issues for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says the Roma people should finally receive the justice they deserve.  Mr. Doghi attended a United Nations Holocaust Memorial event at UN Headquarters in New York where he spoke about the importance of education to help fight racism and discrimination against vulnerable minorities. 

UN News’s Ana Carmo started by asking him about the fate of the Roma under the Nazi regime.