Originally published in Worthy News
Nations around the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day with ceremonies and warnings against antisemitism and historical distortion, honouring the victims of the Nazi genocide as the number of living survivors continues to decline.
The annual commemoration on January 27 marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1945.
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During the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered about six million Jews, along with an estimated five million others the regime deemed undesirable, including Roma, people with disabilities, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, LGBTQ people, political opponents, and Christian dissidents.
Ceremonies were held at former concentration camps, national memorials, and parliaments across Europe, Israel, and the United States, as officials stressed the need to preserve historical truth.
Remaining vigilant
The European Union’s executive European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that Europe remembers “the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis” and must remain vigilant against antisemitism and Holocaust denial, calling such hatred “unacceptable.”
At the Auschwitz memorial in southern Poland, survivors joined officials to lay wreaths and light candles. Marian Turski, a survivor of Auschwitz and longtime advocate of Holocaust education, reiterated a warning he has often voiced at commemorations: “Auschwitz did not fall from the sky,” urging societies to react early to discrimination and hate.
In Israel, ceremonies at Yad Vashem, the Jewish nation’s Holocaust memorial center, emphasised the urgency of education as survivor numbers dwindle. Researchers estimate fewer than 200 000 Holocaust survivors remain worldwide, most now in advanced age.
The United Nations, which established International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005, reiterated that remembrance is essential to preventing future genocides, urging governments to combat antisemitism, racism, and all forms of religious hatred.
As survivors pass on, historians and educators say the responsibility to remember — and to confront hatred before it turns deadly — increasingly rests with younger generations.
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