The President of the European Parliament urged Europeans to fight the "demons" of racism and anti-Semitism that still haunt Europe in a speech at a ceremony marking the liberation of Germany's Buchenwald concentration camp 70 years ago.
Buchenwald was the biggest concentration camp on German soil. More than 56,000 people died there from torture, medical experiments and starvation.
Schulz said that in the 1930s people allowed the seeds of hatred to grow in their hearts, allowing the Holocaust to happen.
"To honor the victims we want to fight the return of demons that we thought were overcome but which still show their ugly face - racism, anti-Semitism, ultra-nationalism and intolerance," he added.
The European Union on Wednesday issued a strong message of intolerance for anti-Semitism as Israel marks Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.
The EU delegation to Israel said in a statement that it mourned all of the victims of the Holocaust and that “honoring their memory means for us to stand strong against anti-Semitism, prejudice and racial discrimination in all their forms and wherever they occur.”
According to the statement, ‘’true today more than ever
‘’Seventy years after the Shoah, we still encounter anti-Semitism in Europe,” th statement said.
It continued, “There are Jewish communities in Europe that again feel insecure and we have been sadly reminded that violent anti-Semitism, intolerance and fanaticism remain a threat. As a Union built on the values of human dignity and human rights after the tragedies of two world wars and the Shoah, we will not allow the return of the demons of anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance. Never forget. Never again.”
In a meeting with a Belgian Jewish delegation, the First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans indicated that “often anti-Semitism is also hidden behind anti-Zionism and malicious criticism of the state of Israel.”
According to the Forum of Jewish Organisations, a representative body of the Jewish community in Antwerp, Timmermans agreed that while both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are terrible, they do not share a common origin and cannot be fought in the same way.
Jewish organizations worldwide have expressed dismay last week following the announcement that the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) is planning on holding a conference in October that implies an equivalence between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Timmermans also said that he would consider the Belgian Jewish community’s request that he establish either a director or appoint a special envoy tasked with combating anti-Semitism in Europe.
Last month, EU foreign affairs chief and EU Commission Vice President, Federica Mogherini supported the idea of an EU task-force to combat anti-Semitism.
"Jews belong to Europe like the Acropolis. A Europe without Jews is not Europe anymore,” Timmermans stressed.
Since the beginning of 2014, there has been an unprecedented increase of 400 percent in the number of antisemitic incidents in Europe and around the world, as compared with 2013.
The data showing the increase was collected as part of a special project by Israel’s NRG news website and the Forum to Coordinate the Fight Against Antisemitism. The report, coming almost seventy years after the Holocaust and the end of World War II, shows that there is real concern for the future of world Jewry, and particularly European Jewry.