page_title: World Jewish Congress
section_title: Diplomatic contacts with Communist countries
hierarchical_section_title: World Jewish Congress / History / 1950s–1980s / Diplomatic contacts with Communist countries
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. ADN-ZB-Zimmermann-17.10.88-Berlin: Bronfman-Besuch - Der Generalsekretär des ZK der SED und Vorsitzende des Staatsrates der DDR, Erich Honecker, empfing den Präsidenten des Jüdischen Weltkongresses, Edgar Miles Bronfman (2.v.l.), im Amtssitz des Staatsrates zu einem Gespräch. Daran nehmen u.a. teil: v. r. Oskar Fischer, Erich Honecker, Werner Jarowintzky, Dr. Peter Kirchner, Edgar Miles Bronfman, Prof. Dr. Israel Singer.
context_page_description: The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act as "the diplomatic arm of the Jewish people." Membership in the WJC is open to all representative Jewish groups or communities, irrespective of the social, political or economic ideology of the community's host country. The World Jewish Congress headquarters are in New York City, US, and the organization maintains international offices in Brussels, Belgium; Jerusalem, Israel; Paris, France; Moscow, Russia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Geneva, Switzerland. The WJC has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
context_section_description: During the mid-1980s, the World Jewish Congress also entered into diplomatic talks with several Central and Eastern European countries, notably Communist East Germany, whose leadership the WJC urged to recognize its obligations to Jewish victims of Nazi Germany. In February 1990, GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow sent a letter to WJC President Edgar Bronfman in which he recognized on behalf of the East German government the GDR's responsibility for German crimes committed against the Jewish people under the Nazi regime. In a statement, Modrow said:
  The German Democratic Republic stands unalterably by its duty to do everything against racism, Nazism, anti-Semitism, and hatred among peoples, so that, in the future, war and fascism will never again start from German soil, but only peace and understanding among people.
  A few weeks later, the first freely elected parliament of the GDR, the Volkskammer, passed a resolution which recognized the GDR's responsibility for the Holocaust and asked "Jews around the world for forgiveness". The GDR pledged to compensate for material damages to Jews and to safeguard Jewish traditions. The resolution became part of the German reunification treaty and continues to be part of German law.
  In 1987, the World Jewish Congress held a meeting of its Executive Committee in Budapest, Hungary, the first WJC gathering in Communist Eastern Europe since the end of World War II. The Hungarian government had accepted that there would to be no restrictions to the attendance of Israeli delegates or the subjects of discussion.
caption: Meeting of a WJC delegation led by Edgar Bronfman with GDR leader Erich Honecker, in East Berlin, October 1988
exif: {}