Articles

Professor G. (Dineke) de Groot. IHRD The Hague 2026 Professor G. (Dineke) de Groot, President of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands 2 February, 2026 Introduction It is an honour to provide the keynote address at this 8th annual lecture. On its website, the organisation says that the annual lecture in The Hague “aims to delve into the profound impact of the Holocaust on international law, providing a meaningful platform for commemoration”. The key point of this address is ab

February 2, 2026 May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany attacked the Netherlands, with their panzer army, and landed at three airfields surrounding The Hague, aiming to capture the Queen and the Dutch government in what was called the Battle of Ypenburg. I was born September 1934. As a child, I was awakened in my room in Delft. I called out to my mother, “Let them stop the hammering.”Opposite our house stood a yeast factory. The loud noise came from an air defense battery mounted on the

Professor Tom Ginsburg, 29 January, 2024 Thank you for giving me the honor of delivering this lecture on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would like to first mention Tom Buergenthal, a distinguished jurist who passed away at the age of 89 in 2023, after a long career devoted to the protection of human rights. I had the privilege of knowing him, as perhaps some of you also did. A survivor of Auschwitz, he went on to become a major force in the constru

Leora Bilsky, January 30th, 2023 Introduction Since the 1990s, international criminal law has struggled to find the proper role for victims in mass-atrocities trials. Notwithstanding the rise of the victim-centered trial, victims still participate in these trials mainly as witnesses for the prosecution, but not as full and proactive participants. In this article, I return to the forgotten contribution of Rachel Auerbach (1903-1976), a Jewish-Polish journalist, historian, and

Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat January 10, 2020 I am privileged Rabbi Shmuel Katzman of the Rabbinaat Den Haag asked me to deliver these remarks in The Hague on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I am speaking from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I helped create President Jimmy Carter I speak to you at a troubling time of a rising tide of hatred against minorities and anti-Semitism, and appalling declines in knowledge about the Holocaust and its contemporary

Professor Philippe Sands, QC 27 January 2020 Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great privilege for me to with you on this day, as we come together to mark the anniversary – the 75th – of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp. In this way, and in particular in this place, the home of the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, we signal our continuing commitment to mark the Holocaust and all the terrible events of that period, and subsequently. We join togethe