The European Union has marked International Day of Holocaust Remembrance with an address to the European Parliament by Israeli President Isaac Herzog who called on Europe to commit to eradicating racism, hatred, and antisemitism in all their forms The overarching message is that we must never forget. Read VP Borrell’s piece on why this matters more than ever.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust: to grant every single human being a set of rights and freedoms that are universally protected by all States. To ensure that the barbarous acts committed during the Holocaust, which stain the conscience of mankind forever, not occur again.
And yet, during the past year some of the Holocaust’s last survivors have been killed in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, alongside the many victims of multiple war crimes, at the doorstep of the European Union.
Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi wrote: ”We cannot understand Fascism, but we can and must understand from where it springs, and we must be on our guard…because what happened can happen again…For this reason, it is everyone’s duty to reflect on what happened.”
The only way to prevent future atrocities, is to ensure that past atrocities and their victims shall never be forgotten.
All forms of Holocaust denial, distortion or trivialization, that also encompass Holocaust instrumentalisation as war propaganda, are against EU law and universal values. Education remains our key tool to prevent it.
Read the media release from the Delegation of the European Union to Australia.