US President Barack Obama led global heads of state in commemorating International Holocaust Memorial Day Sunday, as he reminded the international community 60 years on from the atrocities of the Shoah, the designated day for mourning and reflection for the 6 million Jewish lives claimed by the Nazis, “it also the time for action”.
Paying tribute to both victims and righteous gentiles “who heroically resisted the Nazis, exemplifying the very best of humanity”, he spoke of a common suffering as he cautioned “we must commit ourselves t resisting hate and persecution in all its forms”.
“The United States, along with the international community, resolves to stand in the way of any tyrant or dictator who commits crimes against humanity, and stay true to the principle of ‘Never Again’,” he added, concluding:
“By remaining vigilant against those who seek to perpetrate violence and murder, we honour those we lost during one of the darkest periods in human history. And we keep their memory alive for generations to come.”
Heading Europe’s tributes to Holocaust victims and survivors, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton sought to use the designated annual memorial day to highlight “that this crime was not perpetrated by a few individuals”. “Many took part directly or indirectly and many more just let it happen. That is why we must remain vigilant. Genocide is caused by the violence of some and the indifference of others,” she warned.
Honouring the righteous among nations who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens, whether familiar to them or total strangers, she sought to conclude on a more positive note, insisting:
“These acts are proof that we are not powerless against evil. That is a lesson which must guide us today; not just to remember the crimes of the past, but to dedicate ourselves to preventing all acts of hatred and standing up for fundamental rights and freedoms in our own time.”
Meanwhile in London, British Prime Minister David Cameron signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, as the book was placed in the House of Commons to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Sunday. Heralding the “vital” initiative for “making sure that we always remember what happened in the Holocaust – and that we never stop learning the lessons”, the Premier was accompanied by French-born Holocaust survivor Freda Wineman as he wrote a message recalling modern genocides, describing it as a tragedy “that so many did suffer from persecution and prejudice, but your work will make sure we never give up this fight to build a better world”.
Representing the British government at an official Holocaust memorial day event organised by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on the Millennium Bridge was Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt who said the “horrific events of the Holocaust fundamentally shaped our history, and are a constant challenge to our understanding of human behaviour”.
Paying tribute to the government-backed Holocaust educational programmes, he said ministers would “continue to work with civil society organisations in the UK and with our international partners to improve the ways in which the Holocaust is taught, researched and remembered, and to tackle outstanding issues such as the restitution of confiscated or looted property to its rightful owners or their heirs”.
In Rome, Italian Premier Mario Monti highlighted the recent rise of anti-Semitism across Europe, as he recommitted his “thoughts, actions and emphasis against all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, against any violation of the principle of equal dignity and equality before the law”.
“The freedom, democracy and peace we enjoy today are in fact part of a precious legacy of the founding fathers in the design, the tragedy of Nazism and fascism, on which our country was built. They are also the pillars on which the Europe of today was built,” he said as he heralded the EU’s success, 60 years after the end of the Holocaust, in establishing peace, which he said was justly marked by its receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
“However, we must be aware that the choices made by the founding fathers are confirmed, strengthened and defended on a daily basis by a resurgence of totalitarianism, racism and anti-Semitism. The occurrence of the Holocaust Memorial Day reminds us of these considerations whilst securing the future of our country and Europe as a whole,” he cautioned.
Paying tribute to Jewish resistance fighters as the theme for International Holocaust Memorial Day this year takes in the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt, he said such riots, replicated across other Eastern European countries under Nazi occupation, “remind us that the choice was not between life and death, but only how to die: and many Jews did not hesitate to choose to die with dignity, fighting”.
Concluding his address by invoking the recently deceased Italian Jewish resistance fighter Rita Levi Montalcini, he said her name “has honoured our country, has elevated the culture of science and the practice of resistance to the Nazi racial laws and persecutions...We will miss her. We will miss her example, her courage, her determination and her intellectual honesty”.