Taiwan on Monday promised to donate 1.5 million Polish zloty (US$409,931) to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to promote education programs about the history of the former Nazi concentration camp.
With Representative to Poland Weber Shih (施文斌), foundation president Piotr Cywinski and director-general Wojciech Soczewica signing a memorandum of understanding in Warsaw, Taiwan has become the first Asian nation to join the organization’s group of donors, the foundation said.
Shih spoke of Taiwan’s resolute support for the “high value of respect for human rights.”
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The nation “stands ready to join global donors in supporting the foundation’s effort to perpetuate the Holocaust sites as the foundation for education and awareness for future generations,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Twitter that it is proud to witness the signing, as the nation is working to bolster its education, remembrance and research on the Holocaust.
It also quoted Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s aphorism: “Life must be lived forwards; but it can only be understood backwards.”
Cywinski said that the foundation, in collaboration with many countries, private donors and local governments, has been able to preserve “the vast and the most important memorial site in the world.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation has used the time to strengthen the voice of the memorial, he added.
The new programs funded by the donation would utilize new technologies to teach the history of Auschwitz and preserve the memories of concentration camp victims, he said.
The participation of people “from the Far East” is evidence that “Auschwitz, as a symbol, has a global meaning,” Cywinski said.
The foundation’s activities are made possible by its constantly expanding coalition of global partners, Soczewica said.
“The similarity of the challenges faced by today’s young generation in Europe or Asia means for us the necessity to search for common answers to difficult lessons from history,” he added.
The Han Kuang exercises, the nation’s major war games, are to start today and run for five days. The drills are to include a military aircraft emergency takeoff and landing exercise on a regular roadway on Wednesday, featuring all three fighter jet models in Taiwan’s fleet, a military source said last week. The drill is to begin at 6:30am on a 3km section of Provincial Highway No. 1 in Pingtung County’s Jiadong Township (佳冬), and feature an Indigenous Defense Fighter, an F-16V, a Mirage 2000-5 and an E-2K Hawkeye early warning aircraft, the source said. The emergency landing and takeoff drill aims to
MRNA VACCINE: Heart inflammation is rare, but possible after a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, and students need to be aware of possible side effects, an expert said As Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations for students aged 12 to 17 are to begin on campuses on Thursday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday urged recipients to be especially watchful for five signs of possible myocarditis or pericarditis, which are rare adverse reactions to some COVID-19 vaccines. The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convener Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) joined the CECC’s daily news briefing to report on possible side effects after receiving a BioNTech vaccine. Lee said that cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been observed in people in the US who have received mRNA COVID-19
Taiwan on Friday accused China of seeking to use the Honduran election to “create controversy” and undermine Taiwan’s long-standing ties with the country, saying it would strive to win support for Honduras’ relations with Taipei. Honduras’ main left-wing opposition party, the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), led by ousted former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, has said that if it wins November’s presidential election it would seek to “readjust” the country’s debt and establish diplomatic relations with China. Honduras is one of 15 UN member countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has already warned Honduras not
WORKING TOGETHER: Masahisa Sato said that the Liberal Democratic Party is aiming to share ideas about Taiwan-related policies and improve ties with Taiwan Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly being threatened by China, and like-minded nations should work together to resist such threats, Japanese politicians said. Japanese House of Representatives members Keiji Furuya and Masahisa Sato made the comments in a video played on Friday at a conference held by the Taiwan Japan Academy in Taipei. Furuya praised President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration for its efforts in reinforcing exchanges with countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia through the New Southbound Policy. Taiwan also has interests in the Pacific Islands region, but they have come under threat from China in the past few years,
RSS