![]() ![]() Memory, dignity and justice were three words selected to represent the theme of this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, held on Jan. “Honoring the lives of victims can take on various shapes - one of them could be for everyone to look up the name and testimony of perhaps just one person, light up a candle for them and treat their personal story with dignity as we remember each of the victims today,” said Michael Reiffenstuel, ambassador of Germany to Korea. A reel of video messages recorded by dozens of ambassadors in Seoul, each lighting a candle in remembrance of Holocaust victims, started the ceremony. Joined by the mayor of Seoul, members of the diplomatic community, academia and representatives of Israeli, German and Korean youths, the ceremony was held in a hybrid online-offline format due to coronavirus concerns. “The destruction of one-third of the Jewish people by a modern scientific state, an enlightened society which was liberal, open, Christian, advanced in every way before the advent of Nazism, a place in which Jewish contribution to culture was vast, intimate and undeniable - this is a deep riddle which no thinking world citizen in 2022 can afford not to ponder,” said Akiva Tor, ambassador of Israel to Korea, at the ceremony at the Goethe Institut Korea in central Seoul held for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Never again, vowed over a hundred participants at a ceremony hosted by the embassies of Israel and Germany and the Goethe Institut Korea as they paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust on Jan. Thanks for your interest.Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, and Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva Tor, to his right, and German Ambassador to Korea Michael Reiffenstuel, to his left, and members of the Goethe-Institut Korea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representatives of the Israeli, German and Korean youths commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the institute in central Seoul on Jan. 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. International Day of Holocaust Remembrance: “We must never forget the fate of millions of Jewish people”, President von der Leyen saysĢ7 January marks the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President von der Leyen said: ![]()
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