Holocaust Victims Commemorated in Yerevan (VIDEO)
01.27.2015 17:10 epress.am
Today, a remembrance ceremony dedicated to the international Holocaust
Memorial Day took place at the Holocaust and Genocide victims memorial
in Yerevan. The event was organized by the UN in Armenia office and
Armenia’s Jewish community.
Armenia’s Jewish community’s Rabbi Gerson Meir Burshtein turned to the
issue of the recognition of all genocides and called for morality to
be a higher priority in political and economic objectives.
The UN’s released address for the Holocaust Memorial day recalls that
the Allied forces liberated Auschwitz Birkenau, the German Nazi
Concentration and Extermination Camp.
“More than a million inmates, primarily Jews, were brutally and
systematically killed in the place where the Nazis introduced the
monstrous concept of “industrialized murder”. Among the other victims
were non-Jewish Poles, political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war,
Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, disabled persons and Jehovah’s witnesses.
Unprecedented in human history, this mass killing was motivated by the
perverse, race-based ideology of the Nazis, who sought to track down
and kill every last Jew and any others they considered to be inferior.
Humankind united to overcome the Nazi menace. Today, we are being
tested again. Minorities everywhere often face bigotry. Sectarian
tensions and other forms of intolerance are on the rise. Anti-Semitic
attacks continue, with Jews being killed solely because they are Jews.
Vulnerable communities around the world continue to bury their dead
while living in fear of further violence.
The mission of the United Nations was shaped by the tragedy of the
Second World War and the Holocaust. We are committed to protect the
vulnerable, promote fundamental human rights and uphold the freedom,
dignity and worth of every person.
For the past decade, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach
Programme has mobilized students and educators around the world to
help us achieve these goals. We are grateful to our many partners –
including Holocaust survivors — who have contributed to this work,
which spanned 42 countries in the past year alone.
The violence and bias we see every day are stark reminders of the
distance still to travel in upholding human rights, preventing
genocide and defending our common humanity. We must redouble our
efforts to eradicate the deep roots of hatred and intolerance. People
everywhere must unite to stop the cycles of discord and build a world
of inclusion and mutual respect,” writes the UN’s address for the
International Commemoration of the memory of the victims of the
Holocaust.