Ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and 75 years after the Wannsee conference, President Jean-Claude Juncker conveyed the following message to the Jewish community:
“As the years pass and as we become further removed from those events, the stronger is our duty to stand back and take the time to remember and reflect. Our duty becomes even more compelling as every year the survivors and direct witnesses of the Holocaust become fewer and fewer, leaving the younger generations with the responsibility to carry a message that cannot lose its strength. We will not cease to say “We remember”! (…) The European Union is a project rooted in the history of the European continent and fully shares this duty of remembrance. In these challenging times, memory is not only a reminder of the past, it is a compass for the future to not repeat the same mistakes and to not fall into the same traps like we have done so by allowing discrimination and hatred to spread.”
High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini underlined in her statement published ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day that: “We have a responsibility to remember: a responsibility towards the victims, towards the survivors. A responsibility towards the future generations. And a responsibility towards Europe, and all European citizens.”
On this occasion, First- Vice President Frans Timmermans will take part this evening in a discussion with Professor Deborah Lipstadt after attending the screening of the film “Denial”, organised by the Commission in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Commission will organise, for the fourth time, a training for EU officials from all EU institutions on this topic and on fundamental rights, where Commissioner Vera Jourová will address the participants and engage in a debate with them. On 30 January, Commissioners Avramopoulos and Jourová will open an exhibition by Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris) on Auschwitz-Birkenau in the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, followed by a debate with Holocaust survivors.
This week, Commissioners participated to several events to mark this occasion: on 22 January, First Vice-President Timmermans also reflected on this topic in a speech in Maastricht (Dutch/English); on 23 January, Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp (see here) and on 24 January, Commissioner Jourová delivered a keynote speech at the Holocaust Remembrance day ceremony. In addition between 2007 and 2019, EU research programmes have supported research on Holocaust, including nearly €16 million of funding for the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project. Read the President’s full statement here.
