World Jewish News

UN marks international day commemorating Holocaust victims.

The United Nations marked on Monday the second annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
In a solemn ceremony in the General Assembly Hall, UN officials, Holocaust survivors and their families paid tribute to millions of victims, including not only Jews but also Roma, Sinti, homosexuals and other groups, killed by the German Nazis before and during World War II.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, still on a tour in Africa, sent a video message prepared for the occasion, calling the Holocaust "a unique and undeniable tragedy."
The remembrance "is an essential response to those misguided individuals who claim that the Holocaust never happened, or has been exaggerated," he said.
Sheikha Haya Al Khalifa of Bahrain, the assembly's president, said the commemoration "is an important reminder of the universal lessons of the Holocaust, a unique evil which cannot simply be consigned to the past and forgotten."
"The Holocaust was a historical event, which cannot be denied. Its consequences still reverberate in the present," she said.
"We must remain vigilant," she added. "By ensuring that the suffering endured by the many victims of the Holocaust is never again repeated we can truly honor their memory."
The United Nations marks the Holocaust commemoration day annually on January 27 but because it fell on a Saturday this year, the event was observed on Monday January 29.
On Saturday, a month-long exhibition was opened in the General Assembly visitors' lobby, displaying both the plight of the Roma and Sinti minorities in Central and Eastern Europe and paintings and sculptures by Holocaust survivors.
By unanimously adopting a resolution by consensus on Friday, the General Assembly condemned denial of the Holocaust, urging "all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end."
In an earlier resolution adopted in November, 2005, the assembly designated January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camps, as the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The move is aimed at encouraging remembrance of and education about the Holocaust, in order to help prevent future acts of genocide.

Источник: english.people.com.cn