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26.01.2022

h Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

 
 
77th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. Image: ZDF.de, IAC Berlin

77th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. Image: ZDF.de, IAC Berlin

 

 

 

Speaking in Berlin on the occasion of tomorrow’s 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz and the International Day in Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, said:

"Auschwitz survivors around the globe are remembering their murdered families who remain in the ashes of Auschwitz to this day. They will also be remembering the Liberation of Auschwitz which is marking its 77th anniversary tomorrow. At the same time the survivors are looking closely at the world of today and are horrified to see how often their memories and their pain are being trivialized, and that the symbols that represent the horrors and degradation they experienced are now being wrongfully exploited during demonstrations. They are also deeply disturbed by the uninhibited anti-Semitic insults and the aggressive obscenities that are constantly being spread about them worldwide via the Internet. For this reason they are particularly grateful on this day of remembrance to all the many people who are now not only thinking about the causes and the crimes of Auschwitz, but also keep on standing up for democracy. They are giving the survivors both courage and hope. But above all, the survivors are placing their hopes and confidence in the many young people who they have met in recent years during many conversations, and to whom they have been able to pass on their memories and accounts. They should not abandon the democracies of Europe, especially now."

In Warsaw Marian Turski, Auschwitz survivor and President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"Even though Europe has experienced a period of relative peace for 80 years since the Liberation of Auschwitz and the end of World War II, still far too little has been achieved of what we had hoped would become reality in the future when we survived the German concentration and extermination camps. Time and again anti-Semitism eats its way into society, the discrimination and marginalization of minorities is still prevalent in Europe’s everyday life, and far-right extremism and populist conspiracy theories are leading to renewed aggression, hatred and violence. All of these things were unimaginable to us, when we were finally liberated from the Nazi death camps. We were hoping for a new age of tolerance and peace, the way many of us formulated it in the Oath of Buchenwald. Yet in these days the threat of armed conflict in Europe is dangerously close. We are now in a situation that is very similar to the events and developments surrounding the Cuba crisis in the 1960s. There was a threat of world war. As survivors of Auschwitz we are hoping, with all of our courage and our memories, that the present crisis can be resolved peacefully in the interest of all the nations involved and to the benefit of humanity as a whole."