![]() Holocaust remembrance is an essential pillar of efforts to ensure that we never forget our history. The European Commission put forward the first-ever strategy on combatting antisemitism and fostering Jewish life on 5 October 2021, to support EU countries and civil society in their fight against antisemitism. For an open, inclusive and equal European society.” We will work towards a European Union free from antisemitism and any form of discrimination. Europe can only prosper when its Jewish communities prosper too. So is Holocaust denial, distortion, trivialization, which is fueling antisemitism and has corrosive effects for collective European memory and cohesion. Antisemitism is again on the rise in Europe. We have to call out antisemitism, antigypsyism and all forms of hatred and discrimination – be it on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability.Īntisemitism led to the Holocaust but did not end with it. ![]() We cannot remain silent when injustice takes place, when massacres are committed. Tormented, beaten, starved, where did they find the strength – spiritual and physical – to resist?” They were determined to fight back.Īs stated by Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel: “The question is not why all the Jews did not fight, but how so many of them did. Still today, and forever, we can learn from the strength, courage and the determination of these poorly armed Jewish fighters and partisans, who carried out revolts successfully against all odds, and an almost certain death. Because Jewish victims were not passive they organised resistance against the Nazis. There were other revolts that might be less talked about – in concentration and death camps in Treblinka and Sobibor or the Białystok Ghetto. Others could later escape from that train, 120 survived. But also other resistance acts like in Belgium, where, that same day, three members of the resistance - Robert Maistriau, Youra Livchitz and Jean Franklemon - sabotaged a train going to Auschwitz with Jews sentenced to death. We will commemorate the 80th anniversary of major uprisings, like the Warsaw Ghetto uprising on 19 April 1943, which became a symbol of Jewish resistance and the brutality of the Nazi regime. This year will be marked by remembering Jewish resistance and insurgence in Nazi-occupied Europe. “We must never forget the six millions of Jewish women, men and children, and all other victims, among them hundreds of thousands of Roma, murdered during the Holocaust. Read more about the theme and the upcoming events at United Nations Headquarters here.Ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President von der Leyen said: The theme reminds us of our responsibility to respond with humanity to the victims of atrocity crimes, to counter hate speech, antisemitism, Holocaust distortion and denial, and prejudice – to do all we can to prevent genocide. The violence of exclusion began with disinformation and hate speech that lent support to systemic injustice, discrimination and marginalization and ended with genocidal killing. The theme highlights the humanity of the Holocaust victims and survivors, who had their home and sense of belonging ripped from them by the perpetrators of the Holocaust. The theme “Home and Belonging” guides United Nations Holocaust remembrance and education in 2023. Photo Credit: Yad Vashem Archives, Hall of Names She was murdered by the Nazis in the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi concentration and death camp. Eva was nine years old when the Second World War began. Here she is pictured with her family at the family home. Photo: Eva Wachsmann (being held second from the left) was born in Kosice Mesto, in the former Czechoslovakia on 22 March 1930.
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