UN HOLOCAUST DAY 2020
-------------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2020 February 1
Introduction
----------
I attended the United nations Holocaust Day memorial on Monday 27
January 2020. The event lasted thru Thursday the 30th but I signed up
only for those on Monday. In the following week I heard from several
other NYSkiers who went to activities o one or other of the days.
This year's memorial was specially important. 2020 is the 785th
anniversary of the Russian army busting into Auschwitz death camp in
World War II. The actual date was january 27th, 1945.
A more recent factor is the steep rise in assaults and attacks on
Jews by antiSemitic agitators. About a dozen occurred in new York
City in the weeks before the UN memorial.
a thied factor was the release of a new peace
program between israel and the United States. it was announced on
Tuesday the 28th at the White House.
Preparation
---------
Announcement of the UN events came in late December, in time to be
listed in NYC Events for january 2020. i reminded that each event
needed its own registration, there being no all-in-one sign-up
procedure. Registration was only via links in the online schedule.
announcement. If a person had a printed announcement he could not sign
up for the events.
I immediately put in for the three events on Monday, leaving out
the other days. In January I gradually received approvals for all
three. There was a bit of misunderstanding of one approval, which I
quickly cleared up thru emails.
The events were the opening ceremony in the UN General Assembly
hall, the opening of the public exhibit 'Seeing auschwitz' in the
visitor's hall, and a discussion of refugee settlement in the
Philippines. The day started at 11:00 EST and ended at quite 16:30,
with ample time for lunch.
This instance is my second participation in the UN Holocaust
memorial. I went last year for what I think was the first open-to-
public event. previously, back into the 1950s, the event was presented
to persons and parties associated with the Holocaust era.
I prepared for the day, on leave from work, by putting UN
correspondence in an envelope, assembling a small day-bag, and wearing
a convention badge hold cross-shoulder. it was empty because attendees
picked up their badges at the UN gate.
At the UN
-------
Monday the 27th was cloudy and cool. I went to the UN by train to
Grand Central and walked the rest of the way. I arranged to met up
with Myrna Cofino at 10:00 so we could go about together thru the
day.
I arrived quite at 10:00 and instantly gave up finding Myrna. The
entire concrete beach in front of the Un, from the bollards on the
currb to the perimetr flagpole wall, was mobbed with people! Easily
there were a full thousand, milling around with no obvious direction.
Convos were mostly in English with a mix of Hebrew and other
languages.
By and by I learned there were three queues, for last name
initial. I boarded the one for I-R. The others were A-H and s-Z. The
lines snaked round and round in the beach, moving forward a few steps
at a time.
Chaos!
----
Folding three queues, each with many hundreds of people, caused
cross linking. A person could easily by mistake hop across to an
adjacent fold, on an other line. there was constant shuffling around
as people scurried to regain their proper line.
ushers with stick signs for the initials circulated among the
crowds. They walked all over the beach, not staying with their own
queue. people ran to them, thinking they were at their proper line,
and were sent to some other part of the beach.
Since we had to be on our own line, i could never meet up with
Myrna. She was on the line for 'C'; I, 'P'. And we each would get to
the ticket agents at different times and be conducted into the campus
with no chance to wait for the other.
The line moved steadily but by 11:00, the opening of the General
Assembly ceremony, i was still on line with a hundred or so people
ahead of me. The other two lines were also filled.
Eventually I reached the ticket agents at the head of the line,
who had fists full of tickets for each initial letter. They shouted
out their letters and people swished to them. I called out for 'O' and
an agent slideded to me to fish out my ticket.
I hurried to the entry gate.
many others were gated thru slowly. Several were stopped, told to
stand aside, because they did not have proper ID. All UN events
require a government-issued photographic identification. A state-
issued driver licence is a typical example. So far these are accepted
even if not yet compliant with REALID.
Some people offered up a business card or showed only their
approval letter. i don't know if they ever were admitted to the
campus. I showed my federal ID and event ticket and was waved along to
the security shed.
Security check was like that at an airport but speeded up. Soonest
a scanning rey got thru the X-ray it was emptied and passed back for
the next person to be scanned. I put back on my coat and fitted my
ticket into the badge holder.
In the General Assembly
---------------------
My slug of people was steered to stairs leading into the General
Assembly chamber. Because we were among the later entrants we were
shunted into the galleries on the upper floors. The main deck, where I
sat last year for being in the initial slug of people, was filled to
the gills.
i ended up in the uppermost gallery, like a ballpark grandstand.
This one was just under the ceiling, so close I felt the heat from the
lamps above me. UN ushers shuffled us into empty seats here and there,
often telling adjacent people to remove their coats or bags. Every
seat had a clear sightline to the main deck and the stage.
The program
---------
The procedings were well under way by now, about 11:45. The
acoustic audio was moderate from the stage but I fished for the
earpiece at my seat to give a bit of amplification. i was tangled
around the seat frame and partly blocked by a coat on my adjacent
seat. That person shifted in his seat and let me get at the earpiece
cord and free it.
The dialog was all in English, except for a song in Hebrew near
the end of the show. On the audio panel, on the seat frame, only the
English language worked. The other languages were mute. I adjusted the
volume to a pleasant level.
I was far from the stage, some fifty meters away. I heard a
distinct lag between the electronic instant sound in the earpiece and
the air-borne sound from the stage.
The presentations were much like last year's, with high rank
speakers fist, following by ever lower ranks. The dialog was forceful
but,unlike last year, was tempered and polite. last year, the lower
ranking speakers were agitated, loud, free-tongued. Today there was
hardly any exccessive narration. Even the Holocaust survivor
presentations were even-toned.
i noticed far fewer flash pictures this year. last year flash was
popped off repeatedly during the ceremony. I took pictures with flash
turned off.
The show closed with a singing of a hebrew song, which I plain
don't know. i heard the same refrain as from last year and gently
mouthed it out. other wise I stood respectfully with the others.
The auschwitz exhibit
------------------
This is a collection of pictures on some twenty panels in the
visitors area. it is free to inspect by passing security like any
other visitor. The UN is open to the public from 10:00 thru 17:00,
every day, for the next couple months.
You must arrive with an empty stomach, some two full hours since
tour previous meal. First to do once in the visitor's hall is to find
the location of and path to a nearby restrom. You may need it in a
hurry.
I suggest that you first inspect the Sputnik satellite and
Foucault pendulum before doing the exhibit. This put some additional
time since your previous meal and gives you something pleasant to
remember for the visit.
These artifacts are in the entry hall just inside the main doors.
The Sputnik is the outer casing for a backup satellite in case the
first, successful, one didn't orbit properly. It's the shell of a real
spacecraft, not a model like those displayed for the 50th anniversary
of Sputnik in 2007. This sputnik is the very first real Soviet
spacecraft, altho not sent into orbit, displayed in the United states.
The pendulum is a gift from the Netherlands. It competes one
rotation is about 32 hours, due to New York's geographic latitude. At
he north or south pole it would rotate in 24 hours. At thee equator it
would seem to stand still, taking infinite time to rotate.
Now for the exhibit.
I do severely warn that this is NOT a bunch of bland pictures like
you may have seen on TV news for the Holocaust anniversary. The
pictures include those captured from papers and records at Auschwitz.
Many document the stages of treatment of the victims and scenes of the
instruments and tools.
You may photograph the exhibit only by ambient light. Some panels
are in darker corners. Make SURE the camera flash is turned off.
While you may after the exhibit do lunch in the public cafeteria,
Vienna Cafe', it may be safer and saner to leave the campus and take a
meal later in the day.
Lunch
---
I browsed in the UN bookstore and gift shop for a while to calm
down from the exhibit. I visited the restroom for normal purposes.
Then I went for lunch.
Being alone with a limited-access badge, I could not go to one of
the UN's internal lunchrooms. I did lunch at the Vienna Cafe', taking
a hot bowl of curry chicken & rice and a fruit juice.
I saw several tables with only a couple people at them. I put my
lunch on one and looked for a chair.
No chair.
I tried a few other tables.
No chairs.
There were way too few chairs to fit around the tables! i and
several other customers sat on the benches along the walls. They were
padded and roomy, with space to set the food items down.
The curry bowl was tasty, filling, with chunks of chicken, potato,
croutons, and scoops of rice. This was washed down with the fruit
juice.
More chaos
--------
At 14:30 i started off to fetch my ticket for the afternoon
program. The ticket I already had was only for the GA ceremony.
Tickets for other activities were handed out in the visitors hall by
event agents.
The agent i asked did not have the tickets in hand. she called by
cell to an other person. That person came in a few minutes, gave me my
ticket, and asked me to sign ff for it. She said the Philippines
program is in Conference Room #4.
She sent me to a far away door, where a UN guard will give me
further directions. At this door the guard told me to use a certain
elevator. Am other guard overheard us and offered an easier way. This
fellow sent me back to the front of the visitors hall to do an
elevator there. i saw this elevator when i collected my ticket but did
not know it could get me to the conference room.
While waiting for the elevator, an other UN guard asked if i
needed help. He said to skip te elevator and do the stairs around the
corner. It leads to the conference rooms, he said.
I was now back in the vienna Cafe, where from earlier UN events I
knew certain conference rooms were nearby.
I asked an official-looking passerby for room #4. He pointed to a
corridor, to which i skipped into.
No room #4. The event panels for all the rooms did not mention
Philippines, refugees, and the like. They were for all kinds of other
events.
I came onto a couple who were also looking for room #4. We three
fanned out to hunt up the room. One of the couple found it by its
event panel and waved us other two to it.
We entered and seated at one of the tables.
The Philippines and refugees
--------------------------
The conference room had curved tables centered on the front stage.
Each seat had a name plaque and audio control panel. Again, only
English language was active. The name plaque had a nonsense word,
probably from a previous event in this room.
The Philippines in WWII, then a US possession from the Spanish-
American War, took in about 1,300 refgugees from Europe before the War
broke out. They were among the thousands who on their own or thru
outside assistance, fleed from worsening conditions in Germany.
Because of the time lost in finding the room, I missed the initial
segments of the program. Perhaps there was explanation of how the
Philippines handled the refugees while under Japanese conquest. If
history serves me rightly, the refugees were already in the islands
when Japan overrunned them. Japan was kicked off within a couple
years, probably too brief to do significant harm to refugees.
The program included presentations from Philippine officials, a
film about the Philippine humanitariann work, and accounts from
several refugees or descendents.
The Trump-Bibi plan
----------------
This was announced on Tuesday the 28th and i don't know yet if it
was noted at the UN events of that day or later. i give here only a
few points and urge that you read the entire plan. some 80 pages. the
two leaders noted in the white House meeting that this plan is the
most detailed, with specific terms, of any previous one by any US
President and israeli leader.
*The entire city of Jerusalem, unified and undivided, is the
capital of Israel. There is no such a place as 'East jerusalem'.
*A built-up area in the new Palestine state adjacent to Jerusalem
may be called 'Jerusalem'. Palestine may put its capital there. The
US will post its own embassy for Palestine in it.
*The entire Jordan valley is part of Israel. The 'West Bank'
vanishes.
*All Israeli populations in the West Bank are integral with Israel
and may continue to grow. No Palestine homes or businesses are
evicted, but come under Israeli law like those inside present Israel.
*Palestine gets its own country in areas already populated mostly
by Palestinians. israel and US will connect separate parts of this
area with new roads and bridges.
*Palestine demilitarizes Gaza Strip and removes all offensive
weapons and structures,.
*Palestine builds a government to protect human and civil rights,
fair and equal treatment of all residents, social stability
*Palestine builds a humane legal and justice system, bank &
finance machinery, property rights structure, educational and health
projects
*Palestinians may visit Jerusalem to honor Moslem places.
*Palestine abrogates assault and terror activity against Israel or
other country.
There are more terms but this gives a general picture of what the
program has. The program was worked up with favor from many Islamic
countries in the Middle East, some agreeing to intervene for
violations.
The provisions for Israel go into effect when the plan is signed
by Israel and the US.
Situation in New York
-------------------
Living in New York and having many Jewish friends, I can empathize
with the current aggravations against Jews. So far no one personally
known was attacked by street gangs or thugs, but the general news is
flecked with such accounts.
The situation since January 1st is worse because the 'no-bail'
rule in New York State went into effect. In brief, nonviolent
offenders may be released after arrest without posting bail. They must
still show up for court layer on their own. So far, I don't think any
person so released voluntarily returned to court to continue his
justice treatment. In the meantime he's free and loose on the street.
Already, end January 2020, several people on no-bail release
committed other crimes before their court date. Some were arrested
again, and then released again.
'Nonviolent' seems to be broadly taken. It does include
burglaries, robberies, vandalism, car theft. it seems to include
physical assault of some low level, like punching, shoving, spitting,
taunting. menacing, even if the victim is actually injured. Since most
attacks on Jews are of this level, it looks like public officials in
New York quietly encourage them.
Perhaps not so quietly. In the education circles of the City
officials openly rail against the Jews, and a couple other minorities,
capture far too high a portion of awards, scholarships, college
admissions, entry to special schools, contest prizes. The imagined
remedy is to stifle these classes from knowing about these options,
sandbag their applications, impose quotas for qualifying. In the
extreme argument, the City's special high schools, like Bronx Science
and Stuyvesant, must be turned into regular schools, admitting anyone
in their districts.
Both the Mayor and Governor in New York sponsored the no-bail rule
when it gestated in 2019. They still, as at end January 2020, favor
it with no inclination to modify it. To them the collateral victims
are somehow acceptable in their world.
In point of history, the Nazi eradication of Jews began with
similar minor attacks. The civil authorities left them alone as too
petty for intervention.
Conclusion
--------
The day's events winded down by quite 16:30. The conference room
let out and everyone went home. I looked around for Myrna, who also
sat the Philippine discussion, with no luck.
i, with a flock of others, walked to the 42nd St bus stop near the
UN. I rode to Times Sq, where I got my train to brooklyn.
if the open-to-public program continues next year, please put in
strong effort to sign up soonest the program is announced, in late
December in 2018 and 2019. Be sure to register separately for each
event you want to attend. Get about NOW getting a GI IS, like a no-
drive card from your state's motor vehicle or office or a US passport
thru a large post office branch.