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President Katsav, Heads of States and Governments, Excellencies

Today we are here at Yad Vashem to pay tribute to the six millions Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

We are keeping them in our thoughts, and we are expressing our solidarity with the survivors.

We must never forget. We must remember and learn from what happened in the Holocaust.

Two generations have passed since the end of the Second World War. The horrors are still close enough in time for survivors to tell new generations about what they experienced.

The final solution of the Nazi regime was also applied to the Jewish community in occupied Norway. Of the 767 Jews arrested and deported from Norway only 26 returned. A vibrant community was lost, and a vital cultural heritage was severely depleted.

We must keep the memories of Holocaust alive, let them speak to our societies today. We must do whatever is in our power to prevent future holocausts from ever happening again.

We must continue to fight anti-Semitism and discrimination in our own societies. New generations must be made aware of what happened 60 years ago. We have to ensure that our schools can tell the Holocaust story.

The adoption of the Declaration on Holocaust by the Stockholm International Forum five years ago was a milestone, and committed us to promoting education about Holocaust in our schools and communities, and raising awareness in society as a whole. Thousands of Norwegian school children are now visiting the former extermination camps in Germany and Poland. Their knowledge of the past makes them better equipped to recognise the signs of anti-Semitism – and better equipped to stop it.

Together with Israel and 18 other countries, Norway works actively in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research on raising awareness.

In 2001 the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Norway was founded. Its establishment was part of the restitution by the Norwegian Government for the economic losses and suffering of the Jews during the Second World War.

In our own efforts we are looking to Yad Vashem and Israel – as a leader in Holocaust education, commemoration and documentation. We are looking to you for inspiration and further co-operation.

On behalf of Norway, I congratulate Israel and Yad Vashem on the new Holocaust History Museum. There could be no better venue for remembering the pain of the past, for paying tribute to those who perished, and for reflecting on the challenge that is still before us.