International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27/01)

Every year on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is celebrated, which is the first world day of remembrance for Holocaust victims. It was approved by the UN General Assembly on November 1, 2005 in resolution 60/7.

The UN General Assembly began a special meeting dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945, with a minute of silence. During the existence of Auschwitz, according to some estimates, from 1.5 to 4 million people died there.

The meeting was opened by the 7th UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who called on «current and future generations» to prevent the horrors of fascism from happening again.

«Today is the day we honor the victims of the Holocaust, the allied powers whose troops defeated Nazism, and those daredevils who risked and sometimes sacrificed their lives to save other people», — Annan said. He also stressed that «mas should not ignore cases of revival of anti-Semitism and should be ready to act against its new forms. We bear this obligation not only to the Jewish people, but also to all others who are threatened or may be threatened by the same fate. We must not turn a blind eye to the ideologies of hatred and discrimination, wherever they appear».

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel Silvan Shalom responded to Kofi Annan's wishes. With words of gratitude, he addressed from the podium the allied troops who freed prisoners from death camps 60 years ago.

«Soldiers-liberators from the states of the anti-Hitler coalition showed that humanity is capable of good. In the face of indifference to the suffering of others, they showed compassion. In the face of deception, they demonstrated courage and determination», — said Shalom.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who was also present at the session, said that democratic Germany had learned lessons from the irreparable mistakes of previous generations of Germans, which led to the heinous crimes of the Hitler regime.

«Our past requires us to uncompromisingly combat anti-Semitism, xenophobia and intolerance», — said Fischer.

Not only politicians came to the session; among the guests were people who directly survived the torture of the Nazis. Therefore, the event became truly historic. As reported, such a meeting became possible after lengthy diplomatic efforts by Israel, the United States, Russia, the European Union and other countries, as a result of which 156 countries supported such an event.

The UN General Assembly called on member states to develop and implement educational programs so that the lessons of the Holocaust are forever preserved in the memory of subsequent generations and contribute to the prevention of future acts of genocide.

The Holocaust (from the ancient Greek holocaustosis — « burnt offering», «destruction by fire») in modern scientific literature and journalism denotes the policy of Nazi Germany, its allies and accomplices in the persecution and extermination of Jews in 1933-1945. The Holocaust is based on the — racial theory of Nazism, the idea of the superiority of the Aryan race over other, recognized «inferior» races, the idea of «world Jewry» as the main enemy of the German nation. Historians estimate that the total number of Holocaust victims exceeds 6 million people. The term gained currency in the 1950s thanks to writer Elie Wiesel, a former prisoner of Auschwitz.

Many countries around the world have memorials and museums dedicated to the memory of the victims of genocide, and today on this day mourning ceremonies and various commemorative events and actions are held here. At the international level, the World Holocaust Forum is timed to coincide with this date. Since 2010, for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the UN has been defining specific topics.

Auschwitz also hosts commemorative events on this day. It is currently open to everyone. You can visit it and see everything with your own eyes, or walk through the museum with a virtual excursion — Excursion to Auschwitz, Auschwitz camp.

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