Holocaust Remembrance Day

The United Nations General Assembly, adopting a resolution in November 2005, designated January 27 as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. In doing so, the Assembly rejected any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part.

The Resolution also urged member States to develop educational programmes to inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust, in order to help prevent future acts of genocide.

The Holocaust was the murder of nearly six million Jews by the Nazi rulers of Germany under Adolf Hitler and their collaborators. Between the German invasion of Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Nazi Germany and its accomplices strove to murder every Jew under their domination.

The Jews were not the only victims of Hitler's regime but they were the only group that the Nazis sought to destroy entirely. The term 'Holocaust' is defined as the large scale sacrifices for destruction, especially of lives, especially by fire.

Hitler attained power in Germany when President Hindernburg appointed him Chancellor on January 30, 1933.

Thereafter, the Nazi leadership lost no time in strengthening their base of power and dismantling the democratic constitution piece by piece. They developed the peculiar ideology that ridding the world of Jews presence and would be beneficial to the German people all man-kind although in reality Jews posed no threat. It was this idea that led to the extermination of Jewish people under the policy known as 'Final Solution'.

Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in his message on Holocaust Remembrance Day emphasizes the need to do everything possible to prevent repetition of such mass murder in the future.

"We must continue to examine why the world failed to prevent the Holocaust and other atrocities since. That way, we will be better armed to defeat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance. We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history's darkest chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in the face of bigotry and hatred," he observes.

"On this fourth International Day of Commemoration, let us remember the victims of the Holocaust by reaffirming our faith in the dignity and equal rights of all members of the human family. And let us pledge to work together to turn today's hope into tomorrow's better future," Secretary General added on.