'Collective responsibility to ensure that atrocities like holocaust do not repeat'

BENGALURU: Stressing the need to remember the historical wrongs,

Jonathan Zadka

, the Consul General of Israel to South India, said on Thursday that it is a collective responsibility to ensure that atrocities like the

holocaust

are not repeated.

He was speaking at a virtual ceremony organised by the Consulate General of Israel to South India to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“These atrocities must not be forgotten. The lighting of candles together with the members of the diplomatic community in south India and leaders of the religious communities in Bengaluru in remembrance of the victims of the holocaust sends a strong message, emphasising the responsibility of everyone to ensure such atrocities never happen again,” he said. The ceremony saw participation from heads of diplomatic missions and clergy from various religious communities, who lit a candle in memory of the holocaust victims.

Every year, the United Nations builds a theme around which the commemoration is focused. The theme for 2022 is "Memory, Dignity and Justice", encompassing safeguarding the historical record, remembering the victims, and challenging the distortion of history often expressed in contemporary antisemitism.
Judith Ravin Consul General at the US Consulate General in Chennai added that the global community must also speak against the holocaust denial, distortion, antisemitism, and all forms of discrimination.

Friedrich Birgelen, Deputy Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany said that words do not do justice to the holocaust atrocities committed.

The Archbishop of Bangalore, Peter Machado, who delivered an address on behalf of the religious leaders, said that to forget the holocaust is to kill the victims twice. He urged the global community to take lessons from the past and prepare future generations with positive ideas of peace and harmony. “We must give our future generation a sense of future, understanding of the importance of life, freedom, peace, harmony, tolerance and co-existence,” he said.

The

United Nations General Assembly

, in November 2005, officially declared January 27 as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust to remember the six million Jews, alongside five million others killed in genocide under Nazi persecution. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the

Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp

of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops in 1945.

“The Holocaust was a painful chapter in the history of humankind. Centuries of antisemitism laid the foundation for such a gruesome act that shook the very foundation of modern civilization, resulting in crisis and a widespread catastrophe for humanity. Its unprecedented character and horror will always hold universal meaning,” a release said.