Yesterday, the United Nations Office in Belarus together with public association “The National Holocaust Foundation” and the Union of Belarusian Jewish Communities held a commemorative evening event dedicated to International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

65 years ago Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz–Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. To commemorate this event, on November 1, 2005 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that set forth that the day of January 27 would be observed annually as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  

"Adopting by consensus the resolution to proclaim the International Holocaust Remembrance Day the UN General Assembly and thus its member states not only honoured the memory of the Holocaust victims but reasserted its commitment to human rights and the fight against anti-Semitism, intolerance and prejudice",- said UN Resident Representative in Belarus Antonius Broek during his speech at the evening event.

Diplomats from 5 countries lit candles in memory of millions of Holocaust victims.  The book “On the Survivors’ Skiff” written by Valentin Skoblo, a former prisoner of the Minsk Ghetto, was also presented during the event.

Throughout the years of World War II, 60 percent of European Jews and approximately 35 percent of the entire Jewish population was systematically exterminated. To preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to prevent acts of genocide, special events are held all over the world on January 27.

Photographs of the commemorative evening event are available here.

For additional information please contact Mr. Victor Radivinovski, Head of the UN Department of Public Information in Belarus, at 227–3817.

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