On Tuesday 27 January, in Brussels, the European Parliament honoured the memory of the six million Jews and several million Roma, Sinti, homosexuals, trade unionists and Communists murdered by the Nazi regime during World War II, during a plenary session commemorating the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
“Today, antisemitism spreads faster and wider than ever, amplified online and on social media. Lies travel in seconds. Old conspiracies are given new life. And the consequences are terrifyingly real, as we were reminded most recently on Bondi Beach, where Jewish families celebrating Hanukkah were shot down in cold blood”, said the European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola (see EUROPE 13773/1).
MEPs gave a long round of applause to Tiziana Bocchi, an Auschwitz survivor whose husband worked as an interpreter in the EU institutions. Ms Bocchi recounted the moving experience of being deported as a child from Rijeka to the Birkenau camp, where Nazi surgeon Josef Mengele worked.
“As an adult, I was able to tell the difference between a Nazi and a German, and that helped me to have a better life. Over time, Germany has taken stock of its past. I would also like we Italians to take stock of our past, because we were not innocent, but allies of the Nazi army. Without the help of the Fascists, there would not have been so many deportees”, said Ms Bocchi.
On Tuesday, as part of the international day of commemoration of the Holocaust, data published by the European Commission following a Eurobarometer survey showed growing concern about antisemitism in the EU. In 2025, 55% of Europeans felt that antisemitism was a problem in their Member State, compared with 50% in 2018. And 69% of respondents considered that the conflicts in the Middle East influence the perception of Jews.
Nearly one in two Europeans (47%) has observed an increase in this protean scourge – hostility in public spaces (62%), anti-Semitic graffiti (61%) and online antisemitism (61%) being among the most cited examples – over the last five years.
However, the survey also revealed that more and more Europeans are aware of the laws criminalising incitement to anti-Semitic violence (66%, compared with 61% in 2018) and Holocaust denial (52%, compared with 42% in 2018).
See the results of the survey: https://aeur.eu/f/kfg (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Nithya Paquiry)