World still haunted by fate of Holocaust victims


The world continues to be haunted by the fate of the millions of Jewish men, women and children who suffered and were killed in the Holocaust.

The UN Human Rights chief made the remarks on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust observed annually on 27 January.

This year's observance coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Second World War's end and the founding the United Nations.

Seventy years ago on 27 January 1945, the largest killing centre of the Nazi concentration camps also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, was finally liberated.

The Charter of the United Nations, which also turns 70 this year, was shaped in response to the atrocities of the Holocaust and the Second World War.

The memory of well over a million Jewish children and thousands of other children who were put to death is particularly unbearable, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein warned that the toxic influences of discrimination, racial and ethnic hatred can still be felt among us, and that a "catalogue of atrocities" runs on.
Marking the "forever solemn day" on Tuesday, he urged people around the world to "resist discrimination of every kind and strengthen their moral courage."


SOURCE: Jocelyne Sambira, United Nations.