Never Forget - Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024
Every year on January 27, the United Nations in Geneva and the international community come together to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. A day chosen by the United Nations General Assembly to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp in 1945.
Together with international Geneva, the EU commemorated the six millions Jews, and members from other targeted groups who were brutally murdered during the Holocaust: the greatest tragedy in human history. We cannot forget the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis and we must unite against all forms of violence and hate against Jews.
“A Molotov cocktail thrown at a Synagogue in Germany. Stars of David sprayed on residential buildings in France. A Jewish cemetery desecrated in Austria. One could hope that these incidents were stories from the past - yet, they are not. They stem from recent weeks. The spike of antisemitic incidents across Europe has reached extraordinary levels in the last few months, as tensions and war flared up again in the Middle East following the horrific attack of October 7.”
Ambassador Lotte Knudsen, Head, EU Delegation to the UN in Geneva.
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The irrational hatred of Jews that led to the Shoah has not disappeared. We still witness attempts to rewrite history, and forms of Holocaust denial, trivialization, or distortion of facts, which also encompasses its instrumentalization. Today more than ever, we must reaffirm the importance of peace, tolerance, and coexistence. As highlighted in the EU Strategy on combatting antisemitism and fostering Jewish life and in the recent joint Communication “No place for hate: Europe united against hatred”, the European Union is fully committed to combatting antisemitism and hatred in all its forms, while promoting freedom of religion and belief for all.
The only way to prevent future atrocities is to ensure that past atrocities and their victims shall never be forgotten.
“We stand together not just to remember the horrors of the past but to reflect on unimaginable courage displayed by those who suffered; those who met unspeakable cruelty with unwavering strength. We stand together united in the need to confront the past, in order to shape a better future.”
Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva
During the ceremony, Martha Raviv, born in 1936, shared her story of surviving the Holocaust but losing her father in the gas chamber at Bernburg. After being separated from her sister and being sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Martha and her mother were liberated by American forces in 1944. In 1948, she reunited with her sister in Israel, who had been forced to flee Austria alone at the age of 12. During the ceremony, Martha's 11 grandchildren were present, symbolizing hope amidst the sharing of her solemn past.
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As part of the International Remembrance Day, the EU also co-organised the exhibition The Last Swiss Holocaust Survivors: Portraits from survivors who found a new home in Switzerland, together with the Permanent Missions of Israel and Switzerland, the World Jewish Congress, and the Gamaraal Foundation. The exhibition, showcasing portraits of Holocaust survivors who found a new home in Switzerland, is set up at Quai Wilson and will continue up until the 1st of February.
External link: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/international-holocaust-remembrance-day-statement-high-representativevice-president-josep-borrell-1_en
