On Thursday, 26 January, the European Parliament gathered for a solemn ceremony (see EUROPE 12789/22) to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned of a resurgence of antisemitism, which is still an important issue.
By way of reminder, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola stated, “If we would have had to have one minute of silence for all the victims of the Holocaust, we would be silent for 11 years”. In her opening address, she described the Shoah as “history’s greatest crime”, one “that has shaped our modern European project into an embodiment of the timeless promise: never again!”
While antisemitism and Holocaust denial still exist, Isaac Herzog called on MEPs to act and to “read the warning signs” of hatred. “The distance between a Facebook post and the smashing of headstones in a cemetery is shorter than we would think”, he warned.
“The Holocaust did not happen overnight; [...] the alarm bells should have rung before”, Mrs Metsola reminded her colleagues when it was her turn to speak, renewing the European Parliament’s commitment to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, the European Commission also launched an informal consultation on the network of places “Where the Holocaust happened”, an initiative of the ‘EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism (2021–2030)’ (see EUROPE 12805/26). “Remembrance is not an aim in itself. We must go a step further. We must foster Jewish life. [...] We will work towards a European Union free from antisemitism and any form of discrimination”, declared President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)