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The following statement was approved by the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois Board of Directors in January 2005

The Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois expresses outrage at the continued escalation of genocidal atrocities and human rights violations occurring in the Darfur region of the Sudan.   

Since 2003, hundreds of thousands of Africans have lost their lives and over a million have been driven from their homes in Sudan’s western region of Darfur in an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by a government-supported Arab militia known as “Janjaweed.”   According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), tens of thousands more civilians may die over the coming months.   Some estimates suggest that if aid is denied or unavailable, as many as one million could perish.  Committed to the annihilation of the native black African inhabitants of the territory, the Janjaweed have fueled continued ethnic and racial violence through the systematic rape of women, burning of entire villages, restricting international humanitarian access (which threatens mass starvations), and perpetuating a policy of forced slavery for those who survive.  We align our voices with the many others calling upon the United States government and the international community to be more proactive in helping to bring security and peace to the people of Darfur. 

The Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois implores the Sudanese government to grant full, unconditional, and immediate access to Darfur by humanitarian aid organizations, human rights investigators, and international monitors.  We urge that the government of Sudan immediately cease its attacks on the people of Darfur and concurrently disarm and bring members of the Janjaweed militias to justices.  In addition, we urge the United Nations to call upon the international community to take all appropriate steps necessary to stop this genocide.

This year marks the 61th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, reminding us how much of the world remained silent and indifferent.  Today we say “Never Again.”  Will we remain silent in the face of the events in Darfur, only in the end to say “never again?”  Elie Wiesel writes: “As a Jew who does not compare any event to the Holocaust, I feel concerned and challenged by the Sudanese tragedy.  We must be involved.  How can we reproach the indifference of non-Jews to Jewish suffering if we remain indifferent to another people’s plight...?  Not to assist Sudan’s victims today would for me be unworthy of what I have learned from my teachers, my ancestors and my friends, namely that God alone is alone: His creatures must not be….  That’s why we must intervene.  If we do, they and their children will be grateful for us.  As will be, through them, our own.”