Gov. Delivers Message of Tolerance

Invoking the battle against terrorism, political and religious leaders across California joined Sunday to remember the Holocaust and denounce the religious intolerance that led to the annihilation of 6 million Jews.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who gave the keynote speech at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration near the Holocaust Monument in Pan Pacific Park, described the Nazi persecution of Jews as the “darkest chapter in a long, tragic story of prejudice and violence against the Jewish people.”

Speaking to an audience of about 3,000 people, including survivors of World War II concentration camps, the governor said the endurance of the Jewish people was a “message of hope” to the world.

“Too many times, the world has been stained by hatred and by prejudice,” he said. “But we see a special resilience in the Jewish experience.”

Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria the son of a police officer who belonged to the Nazi Party, waded into the crowd after his six-minute address, shaking hands and hugging the guests. He wrapped an arm around a tearful survivor of the Auschwitz prison camp, 74-year-old Helen Gorelik, who told him that she had been a captive of the Nazis when she was a girl.

“He was very passionate,” Gorelik said later. “And I felt like he almost had tears in his eyes. He held me very tight, and he didn’t let go for a few minutes.... I felt sort of a comfort.”

Amid the recent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, some of the speakers urged support for Israel and called for a steely resolve in the face of religious extremists carrying out terrorist attacks.

Rep. Tom Lantos, a Democrat from San Mateo, described Israel as leading “the global fight in their region against terrorism.” Lantos, himself a Holocaust survivor, predicted that the “civilized world” would prevail against “tyranny.”

“One does not compromise with evil,” he said. “One fights them.... We shall defeat them, and we will see a proud and free United States lead the civilized world in these early years of the 21st century, which, if we keep our sanity and our values, will be infinitely safer and less violent than the one that just concluded.”

After the event, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn said, “You see the idea of Israel still being rejected by so many people in the world. And without Israel, the Jews and so many other non-Jews feel it would be easy to do another Holocaust again. It’s so important to preserve Israel and to remember the Holocaust and remember the 6 million who lost their lives.”

For his part, Schwarzenegger reminded the crowd that his first overseas trip as governor would be a visit to Israel, on May 1-2. Schwarzenegger is to take part in the groundbreaking for a new museum of tolerance in Jerusalem.

The governor’s office is monitoring the rising tensions in the Middle East, but Schwarzenegger made plain that he intended to go.

“This will be an extraordinary moment for me, and I am proud to continue to promote tolerance,” he said.

During the recall campaign, Schwarzenegger was dogged by allegations that, in the 1970s, he had talked admiringly of Adolf Hitler. He denied the charges and said he loathed the Nazi leader.

At the event Sunday, many seemed convinced that the governor was sincere.

“He’s a friend of the Jews and a friend of Israel,” said Jona Goldrich, 76, chairman of the L.A. Holocaust Monument and one of the speakers.

After Schwarzenegger left, Lantos told the guests that he would speak to the governor today and urge him to use his “unique position” to press for his native country to own up to its role in the war.

“I am tired of being told that Austria was the first victim of Hitler when in fact Austria was the first ally of Hitler,” the congressman said.

He added: “I look forward to the day, not far in the future, when the Austrian government -- a civilized, powerful and intelligent government -- will follow suit with the Hungarian government and say, ‘Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.’ And I look forward to the day when Gov. Schwarzenegger will be in Vienna to help open a Holocaust museum there, where it is so long overdue.”

During his speech, Schwarzenegger addressed Austria’s role: “I come from a country that had a history of prejudice that resulted in violence and bloodshed, in suspicion and atrocities. Because of that, I promised myself I would do whatever I could to promote tolerance.”