Seventy-seven years after the Holocaust and the end of the Nazi atrocity at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Cypriot state and society, together with the international community, pays tribute to the victims. Remembering the crime that led almost six million people to death, we express, once again, our strong condemnation and abhorrence of totalitarianism and racial hatred, as well as our solidarity with the people of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
The ruthless, planned and systematic extermination of the Jewish population, their culture and traditions by the Nazi regime is one of the most heinous crimes known to mankind. In the name of the "final solution" of what they imagined to be the "Jewish question", the Nazis, as well as their collaborators in other countries, unleashed a general persecution against the Jewish ethnic element in all countries.
The result of this ideological "hysteria" was a crime of unimaginable proportions through mass murders by rifle fire, organized local massacres (pogroms), internment in concentration camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau and Treblinka, as well as murders in gas chambers. By the end of the war most of Europe's Jewish population, some six million people, had died a horrific death.
The Cypriot state remains committed to the necessity of preserving historical memory. Both on the basis of the traditional ties of friendship with Israel and the Jewish people, but also through the experiences of the genocide against the Greeks of Asia Minor by Turkey and the Italian attempt at ethnic cleansing that is currently taking place in the occupied territories of Cyprus by Turkey, the Cypriot people are particularly sensitive to the Holocaust and the persecution of the Jewish people.
Echoing these feelings of Cypriot citizens, we express our active solidarity with the people of Israel and recall the support offered by Cypriots during the period 1946-49 to some 50,000 Jewish refugees who stayed for some time in our country.
Alongside the close ties of friendship and cooperation with the Jewish people, our country's attitude is inspired by basic principles and commitment to panhuman values. For this reason, the Cyprus Government has recently proceeded to adopt the international operational definition of anti-Semitism - as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) - as a useful guiding tool for education and training. This decision reaffirmed the commitment of the Republic of Cyprus to fostering respect for diversity and addressing all forms of discrimination, racism and xenophobia, including anti-Semitism. Cyprus has also joined the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance - with observer status - and with this action we declare once again our practical interest in combating anti-Semitism.
On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, in cooperation with the Embassy of Israel in Cyprus and the Jerusalem-based Holocaust Teaching and Research Center - Yad Vashem, is organizing a series of commemorative and awareness-raising activities.
Specifically planned.
- Online lecture by Mr. Moshe Aelion, a Holocaust survivor, for students of secondary schools, high schools and technical schools (February 2, 2022).
- Exhibition entitled: "Spots of Light: To be a Woman in the Holocaust", in various schools
and a Pancyprian Student Contest of Creative Expression entitled: "Honouring the Victims of the Holocaust - Fight against Anti-Semitism", in the context of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
IP
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