The only way to prevent future atrocities is to ensure that past atrocities and their victims shall never be forgotten, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 26 January.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the Genocide Convention, which this year marks its 75th anniversary, was, Borrell said, “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, do not occur again.”
He also reminded that during the past year some of the Holocaust’s last survivors had 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.
The EU High Representative called on and encouraged countries around the world to take firm steps to develop education curricula about the Holocaust.
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“All forms of Holocaust denial, distortion or trivialisation, that also encompass Holocaust instrumentalisation as war propaganda, are against EU law and universal values. Education remains our key tool to prevent it,” said Borrell. “In line with the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, the EU will continue to work inside and outside Europe to combat Holocaust denial and antisemitism; as well as to promote freedom of religion and belief for all.”
“Let us fight antisemitism, which is on the rise today,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added on Twitter. “And let us make Jewish life prosper in an open, equal EU society.”
We will always remember the millions of victims murdered during the Holocaust.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 27, 2023
But remembrance is not an aim in itself.
We must go a step further.
Let us fight antisemitism, which is on the rise today.
And let us make Jewish life prosper in an open, equal EU society. pic.twitter.com/kzrkKVqa8q
