Discurso del Ministro de Justicia, Mariano Fernández Bermejo. Versión inglés.

Madame Minister; Mr. Deputy Rector; Mr. President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain; Mr. President of the European Jewish Congress; representatives of the Jewish communities in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia and Romania; Mr. Ambassador of Israel; your Grace the Nuncio; ambassadors; members of parliament; representatives of the institutions of the State; and with special affection the delegation of Spanish Jews survivors of the death camps, to whom this act of remembrance is especially dedicated, I wish you all, ladies, gentlemen and friends, a very good evening.

This is not the first time that we have gathered here in official and solemn commemoration of the Holocaust. This is a tradition, begun in 2004 and now established for good, of remembrance of the Shoah, perpetrated in the mid-twentieth century no less, and in the very heart of Europe. Immersed in its own conflicts for much of the last century, Spain was for a time perhaps scarcely touched by the aftermath of the Second World War, in which it did not take part; and nor did it feel perhaps that the painful but necessary task of debate and analysis of the Holocaust - the Shoah - was any of its concern. Wrapped up in its role as a place of refuge and a gateway to salvation for persecuted Jews (now the province of historians, but the story too of those Spanish diplomats who by dint of vastly exceeding the instructions they received, played an inestimable part - like that of ambassador Sanz Briz, whose granddaughter is with us here today), for decades Spain stood aloof from the endeavours of intellectuals, survivors and European politicians and society to make sense of that moral breakdown - a breakdown which made possible, in the words of Winston Churchill, "the most monstrous crime in the history of the human race".

Fortunately for everyone - for the Spanish, for Europe as a whole and for Jews the world over - we are changing all that. Thanks to the recovery of our democratic values, to the transformation of our society, and not least to our full participation in the construction of Europe for over twenty years now, our contemporaries have at last come to feel, irreversibly and irrevocably, that the suffering of any oppressed people is indeed their concern. As Simone Veil observed a scant two years ago in a speech in Madrid, "In her history, Spain symbolises the two postures adopted by nations towards the Jews: first acceptance and brotherhood, then later intolerance and violence".

The history of Spain, the erstwhile Sefarad, cannot be understood without reference to Jewish identity. Meanwhile, in Spain today no-one is untouched by the tragedy of the Holocaust as a crime against humanity which visited the same destructive fury on hundreds of thousands of European Gypsies; on exiles; on political opponents of totalitarian regimes in Spain and elsewhere; on children; on people discriminated against by reason of their sexual orientation; on dependent people, the sick, the disabled, and on many of those who simply and courageously tried to succour them. Spain is also aware that indifference is not an option. Not only is it insulting to those who have suffered so much, but it would leave us all defenceless against future threats. If we fail in our duty to remember, if we fail to create mechanisms to counteract any intolerance in society, any violence - in a word to protect all those things that make us human - we shall be constantly at risk of sliding down that slope which leads to dehumanisation. And dehumanisation, as much testimony has confirmed (and here I quote Primo Levi), is the condition which unleashes the annihilation of all that is worthwhile. Whenever a society consents, even minimally or surreptitiously, to the spread of contempt for any person who for whatever reason (origin, ideas, real or imagined differences) is considered other - if we assent to the deconstruction of that other, that alien, that foreigner, that misfit - then we shall be opening the door to a nightmare of oppression in which the other is judged not by what he has done but by what he is. It is therefore vital that we be alert to this at all times.

At this moment, Spain is concerned. Many people fear that a species of subculture of excess and violence may have taken root in sectors of our society, which is largely urban, open and complex. It is a mistake to put this down solely to marginalisation or to confrontation arising from the integration of ever more diverse elements. There is no such thing as gratuitous violence. Underlying any violence, whether domestic or claiming a political basis, there is an unwholesome set of counter-values rooted in contempt for human beings, in hatred, hatred of otherness - in a word, the slippery slope that leads down to domination, discrimination, racism, xenophobia and worse.

And that is the great lesson, the unending lesson taught by the tragedy of the Shoah for the world today and the world yet to come. This year we are honoured to welcome survivors of that tragedy among us in this act. The majority can claim Judaeo-Spanish or Sephardic origin - hailing from communities in Bulgaria, Istanbul, Salonika, France, Rhodes and elsewhere - descending from families who abandoned Spain following the expulsion decree of 1492 and yet for generations have viewed Spain as a far-off second homeland. These are people whose mother tongue, music, poetry, family and culinary traditions have long preserved a Spanish flavour. Then they were persecuted time and again, deported, eventually tortured, and thousands were massacred in new adopted countries when the hour of horror struck. And here, tonight, they bring us their spine-chilling testimony to that reign of dread. It is good for us to listen, so as to be able to comprehend and pass on that comprehension, and also to be able to oppose, with all the strength and moral energy concentrated here at this meeting, the persistent and obscene echoes of disgraceful denial - which is in fact a criminal offence under Spanish law, one of the precursors of a European commitment to the same effect (which Spain naturally supports). And it is with pride and enthusiasm that we welcome them here.

Very shortly, we shall be inaugurating a new cultural institution in Madrid, promoted by the Government, with the hope that it will become a meeting point and a centre for the spread of Judaeo-Hispanic culture. It is to be called "Casa Sefarad Israel". It will be a major event, the first step in an ambitious endeavour to retrieve that culture which was born in the Spain of antiquity and flourished in Al-Andalus and in the mediaeval Christian kingdoms with such world-famous figures as Maimonides, Ibn Gabirol, Ibn Ezra, Yehuda Levi, the Negrela brothers, Moises ben Nahhman, Benjamin de Tudela, Tob de Leon, Abraham Abulafia and countless physicians, linguists, scientists, politicians, poets, mystics, exceptional administrators and so on - a culture that began to decline from the 13th century on as the formation of nation-States dictated policies of religious conformity, and vanished with the final expulsion in 1492. Today, the best experts on the subject recognise that the seed of that great Judaeo-Hispanic culture was not completely wiped out by that exodus. It had grown roots in Spain, and indeed throughout the Mediterranean, where it expanded and was reincarnated in many of the great writers, musicians and mystics of succeeding centuries - including Spain´s Golden Age, many of whose leading lights belonged to families of conversos (or New Christians as they were called then).

During these days Madrid is hosting a meeting of the executive committee of the European Jewish Congress, with representatives from the Jewish federations of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia and Romania - all illustrious personalities who honour us with their presence along with my good friend Jacobo Israel Garzón, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain, and Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia, the affable President of Unión Romaní. My greetings to you all, and my wish that we may all renew our embrace the same time next year. Thank you.