Filmmaker Steven Spielberg delivered a keynote speech at the United Nations General Assembly, which centered on the theme 'Journeys Through the Holocaust" on January 27th.
The ceremony also featured a speech by Rena Finder, a Holocaust survivor who had been part of Schindler's list. Spielberg's address coincided with the 20th anniversary of the USC Shoah Foundation, which he founded in 1994. The Shoah Foundation has already filmed and collected 51,413 accounts from Holocaust survivors in 34 languages and 58 countries.
Six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Spielberg announced it has expanded its mission to include interviews with survivors from other genocides. They include testimonies from survivors in Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Srebrenica, Bosnia and Nanking, China.
"Movies at least have taught me that I don't have to be realistic about anything," Spielberg told the Associated Press last week.
Spielberg was inspired to create the foundation after meeting with Holocaust survivors during the shooting of "Schindler's List," his 1993 Oscar-winning film, which highlights one German businessman/war profiteer who went through extraordinary lengths to rescue 1,300 Jews during the Holocaust.
The film's enormous worldwide success helped propel the launching of the Shoah Foundation.
Spielberg has also written the introduction to a forthcoming book "Testimony: The Legacy of Schindler's List and the USC Shoah Foundation," which will be released next week.
"I'm basically like a doctor on call. I have everything but a beeper on my belt. When they need me, I'm there," Spielberg told The AP, in describing his deep connection to the Shoah Foundation.
"My initial awareness of what had happened to the Jews of Europe under Fascism came from my grandmother and grandfather telling me horrifying accounts of fates of my relatives and their friends," Spielberg told the UN General Assembly in January.
"Directing 'Schindler's List,' interviewing survivors - this was my way of trying to understand the Holocaust. Breaking down the phenomenon of overwhelming horror into individual moments was the only way I knew how to approach and better understand it. Those whose who lived it know what we will never know. Survivors and witnesses often say that their dearest hope; the hope that held to keep them alive was to be heard, and to be believed, and to be understood," he added.
The director's words have poignant meaning, particularly since Holocaust denial still remains prevalent. Just last week, Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used a Friday morning speech to call into question the Holocaust, The Jerusalem Post reported.
"The Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain, and if it has happened, it's uncertain how it has happened. Does anybody dare talk about the Holocaust in Europe?" Khamenei said.
"Ayatollah Khamenei's words are unmistakable: He denies the Holocaust happened. Iran needs to renounce Holocaust denial, extremism, and bigotry if the world is to have any faith in its conduct and intentions," responded Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress.
The foundation announced that the Institute will honor President Barack Obama with the Ambassador for Humanity Award on May 7 in Los Angeles.
"President Obama's commitment to democracy and human rights has long been felt," Spielberg said.
