Here's an interesting article on re-writing history.
http://www.wiersma.pvda.nl/nieuwsbericht/449SOCIALISTS URGE EU TO ACT AGAINST REWRITING OF HISTORY21 April 2008
Socialist Euro MPs will tonight condemn party political interpretations of European history and call on the European Commission and Council to promote a full debate on the issue.
The move will come during a Strasbourg debate on crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by totalitarian regimes.
Socialist vice-president Jan Marinus Wiersma, who will be the Group's opening speaker, said: "We want a proper debate on the history of Europe, including some of the terrible episodes.
We want to avoid party political interpretation of history. This often fuels extreme and exclusive nationalism."Mr Wiersma, who is a historian by profession, added: "The abuse of history can be used to promote forgetfulness, for example by denying the Holocaust or covering up crimes by totalitarian regimes.
"There is always the danger of selectivity when criteria are applied to one phenomenon but not to another.
"We want the Commission and Council to promote a proper debate fed by information that is non-partisan and scientific in character. We should not forget the crimes committed and we should formulate lessons to be learned. But we should not abuse history."
Concern about the proper interpretation of history is growing in the run-up to the 40th anniversary of the Prague Spring, the commemoration of Kristallnacht in November 1938 and the current debate about the artificial famine in Ukraine during the 1930s.
An oral question tabled by Socialist Euro MPs for tonight's debate asks: "How will the Commission ensure that the debate focuses on scientific criteria and will not fall victim to political exploitation in the context of increasing nationalism and populism?"
The oral question was tabled by eight MEPs including Socialist leader Martin Schulz, Mr Wiersma, group vice-president Hannes Swoboda, Helmut Kuhne of Germany, Miguel Angel Martinez of Spain, Justas Vincas Paleckis of Lithuania, Jozef Pinior of Poland and Libor Roucek of the Czech Republic.
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