Local EU Statement on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah)
The Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel and the 26 Embassies of EU Member States located here, join the people of Israel today in remembering the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
These are troubling times for all people in this region. We mourn all those killed by terror, missiles and rockets, and recall the suffering inflicted on civilians and families.
Today, as in the past, it remains of paramount importance to actively remember the Holocaust and learn from its lessons. The central theme of this year’s Yom HaShoah is “The Jewish Family during the Holocaust.” We bow our heads in solemn tribute to countless Jewish families torn apart by genocidal hatred in the darkest moment of our history.
In recent months, the scourge of antisemitism has risen across the globe, including in some countries on our continent. Jews are attacked; synagogues, cemeteries and Holocaust memorials are desecrated; Jewish communities continue to face intimidation, hatred and violence, both offline and online. The current conflict in the Middle East has further exacerbated these deplorable phenomena.
As representatives of the Member States of the European Union, we vow to never accept the hatred of Jews, anywhere, anytime, in any form. We continue to implement the 90 initiatives proposed by the EU’s Comprehensive Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, including many to promote Holocaust research, education and remembrance.
We are aware of and deeply concerned about the issue. A growing majority of Europeans now consider antisemitism a problem in their country. Yet we remain more committed than ever to employ all available legal and policy tools to ensure that Jewish life can flourish across the EU. As Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, said last month: “We know that what starts as antisemitism never ends as such. It is a threat to everyone and one that we will not only continue to call out but one that we will act against.”
This is a joint statement agreed by the Ambassador of the European Union to the State of Israel and the Ambassadors of all EU member states represented in Israel, i.e. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.