January 27 has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Day of Remembrance of Holocaust Victims, marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in 1945.
On this occasion, we remember and honour the innocent victims of the Holocaust, six million Jewish children, women and men, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti and others who were murdered in cold blood in the name of the hateful, inhuman and racist Nazi ideology.
We also pay tribute to the survivors of the Holocaust and salute the struggle of thousands of men and women against it. The moral duty of the international community always remains to never forget this terrible atrocity and to remain vigilant in the fight against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, as well as all forms of hatred and discrimination, wherever and whenever they occur.
Cyprus is indelibly linked to the echoes of the Holocaust, as more than 50,000 survivors were hosted on our island between 1946 and 1949. Cyprus acquired observer status in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2021 and is implementing relevant policies at the national level. These include the adoption of the IHRA's definition of anti-Semitism and the IHRA's definition of Holocaust denial.
By joining our voices to shout "Never again" and keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, Cyprus reaffirms its commitment to international efforts to prevent any possible recurrence of such heinous crimes.
(MX/IK)
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