(The use of memory: International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research; OSCE Anti-Semitism Conference) (1080) By Michael J. Bandler Washington File Staff Writer "Anti-Semitism is "the oldest and most pernicious form of hatred in the world," says U.S. Ambassador Randolph Bell, the State Department's special envoy on Holocaust issues. "It arose centuries ago and has never gone away." Now, as a result of a decision taken at a ministerial meeting last fall following lengthy campaigns by American non-governmental (NGO) and human rights organizations, anti-Semitic violence and behavior is about to be considered by the international community as a human rights matter rather "than just as an aberration of general tolerance," Bell explained in a recent conversation. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), meeting in Vienna June 19-20, will confront anti-Semitism and its manifestations in Europe, Central Asia and North America "with an eye," according to Bell, "towards a regularly recurring review of recommendations for implementation." The assemblage of delegates from 55 OSCE-participating states and more than 100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is the first such exploration of the subject by a major European security organization. The examination of anti-Semitism "cannot be an appendage to other meetings, a sidebar," U.S. Congressman Ben Cardin observed, in support of the June conference. Cardin belongs to a congressional human rights monitoring group and is the co-sponsor of a Congressional resolution expressing concern about anti-Semitism in OSCE participating states.. At a time when possibilities for a wider community of values are arising from the expansion of NATO and the European Union, the OSCE will discuss opportunities for legislation -- institutional mechanisms and government actions -- against anti-Semitism, as well as the role of government and civil society in promoting greater tolerance, and the role of education in "changing hearts and minds," according to Bell. George Santayana's oft-quoted caveat that "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it" inevitably surfaces with regard to the Holocaust, arguably the most horrific manifestation of anti-Semitism. When President Bush finished his tour last month of the rail spur, cells and crematoria at Auschwitz -- the first U.S. president since Gerald Ford to visit a Nazi death camp during his term of office -- his brief inscription in a guest book read "Never Forget." To that end, the continuing work of the five-year-old International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, which met recently in Washington, has been vital. The 15-nation group -- Argentina, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States -- was created in 1998 at the initiative of Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson and bolstered two years later by the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. The goal of the task force is to encourage activities on Holocaust education, remembrance and research in member countries and other interested nations, including retrieval of archival material, and to ensure that political and social leaders stand behind this mandate. More governments are expected to join the body in the years ahead. The task force encourages and gives monetary support to collaborative projects such as its first venture, developed in 1999 with the Czech Republic -- a national teacher-training program at Terezin, the site of a Nazi concentration camp, and at Holocaust museums and archives in the Netherlands, Washington, D.C., and Israel. Addressing the task force in mid-May, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage saluted its work as "a warm and living memorial, one built out of education -- relentless education -- remembrance and research." "Wherever we come from and whoever we are, we speak with a single voice," Armitage said. "Because today, we are all activists for the cause -- and that cause is memory." The 15 member countries bring their national experiences in Holocaust remembrance to the task force table. Italy is an example. Along with a number of other European countries, Italy has fixed January 27 for an annual national commemoration of the Shoah, as the Holocaust is known in Hebrew. On that date, in 1945, Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz. Each January 27, Italian elementary and high school students engage in research projects and also expand their awareness through meetings with Holocaust survivors. For the past three years, educators in every region of Italy have participated in training seminars, including an annual session in Auschwitz. Italy has also established a Holocaust museum in Ferrara. Luxembourg, the newest task force member, has worked extensively to build consciousness about the Holocaust among its citizens. Archives are now open to researchers, and a group of "witnesses of the Second Generation" prepares students for visits to the death camps each year. In the United States, the national commemoration takes place annually in late April. As for the task force itself, the overall challenge is to develop networks linking governments with each other and to bring representatives of civil society together across national boundaries. Within that enterprise, working groups composed of experts recommend collaborative projects for approval. At the task force meeting in mid-May, the reports of various working groups were indicative of the diligence with which the goals are being pursued. The academic working group, for instance, reported on translations of publications from Eastern European languages into English and, within the framework of European languages, from West to East. It also evaluated proposals for documentary films from filmmakers from a number of countries. Noting applications that had been submitted by the Austrian and German delegations for the funding of teacher-training projects for Slovakia, the working group on education pointed to the success of similar seminars in Romania, France, Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. Also cited: the first-ever teacher-training program in Argentina, held in Tucuman, which drew educators from five provinces who had never been exposed to the curriculum and methodology for teaching about the Holocaust in public schools. Looming in the shadows behind the prodigious efforts to increase awareness of the Holocaust and its lasting impact is the scourge itself -- anti-Semitism. "We cannot consider ourselves truly modern if this vestige of the Dark Ages remains," Ambassador Bell maintained. "We cannot fight other forms of hatred and racism if we have not come to terms with this one." [Note: Information on OSCE conference can be found at: http://www.osce.org/events/conferences/anti-semitism/index.php]