The International Holocaust Remembrance Day recalls the darkest period in human history – systematic persecution, genocide and terrible suffering primarily of the Jewish people, as well as of other victims of the Nazi regime. In its very essence, the Holocaust is, indeed, the complete denial of humanity, of all the cultural and civilization achievements as well as of the fundamental moral values of mankind.
On 27 January, the Croatian Government joins the commemoration of the liberation of the largest Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we honour millions of innocent women, men and children killed only because they belonged to a different religion or nation.
Today it is particularly important to educate young people, especially in schools, about the unspeakable suffering, humiliation and assassination of millions of innocent victims, and the senseless tragedy of the Jewish people throughout the occupied Europe. This also applies to the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1945), especially to the Ustasha camp in Jasenovac and others, where thousands of members of Jewish and other peoples, as well as Croatian anti-fascists and democrats were killed.
It is also an opportunity to pay tribute to 117 Righteous Among the Nations from Croatia who, during the Second World War, put their own lives at risk to save their fellow citizens of Jewish faith. Only educated young people who are not deprived of history lessons will be able to build a modern society free of any form of hate and intolerance in accordance with democratic and European values.
This painful period for humanity should serve as a permanent warning and obligation for us to leave to the next generations of Croatians a country that is future-facing, a country in which the values of mutual understanding and respect are strengthened, and a country in which there must be no room for exclusion, intolerance and violence, especially when they are based on national origin or religious beliefs. For all these reasons, further consolidation of the freedom and equality of all people, as well as the protection of inalienable dignity of every person, must be a common duty and obligation towards all Holocaust victims.
In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly resolution proclaimed 27 January the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating and paying tribute to the victims of the genocide in which about six million Jews were killed. Through its membership in the International Holocaust Reconciliation Alliance (IHRA) and through its participation in numerous other initiatives, Croatia is active in the field of education and research about the Holocaust as well as in commemorating the most horrible crime in the history of mankind.
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