Holocaust Scholar: International community must stop Syria atrocities

The chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust museum says international organizations should be founded "with the express purpose of averting future crimes against humanity."

Members of the Civil Defence rescue children after what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in al-Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria June 2, 2014 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Members of the Civil Defence rescue children after what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in al-Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria June 2, 2014
(photo credit: REUTERS)
World leaders and the global community must implement in Syria the principles they enacted after World War II, the chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Avner Shalev, said Sunday at a conference in Jerusalem.
"Over recent days and weeks, the world has seen evidence of renewed carnage in Syria," Shalev stated, expressing "deep concern over the appalling images of massacres of human beings from this turbulent area."
He stressed the relevance now of steps taken by the global community after the Holocaust, including the foundation of international organizations "with the express purpose of averting future crimes against humanity." He added that international efforts must be made to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees.
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Shalev was speaking at the opening of the International Institute for Holocaust Research's conference titled "The Jewish Refugee Problem During the Shoah (1933-1945) Reconsidered."
The three-day conference is convening leading scholars in the field of Holocaust research and education from around the world to examine various aspects of the Jewish refugee problem before and during the Holocaust. Participants were set to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis during the Nazi regime in a range of countries, with a special emphasis on refugees in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust.