Saturday, January 28, 2012

Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on International Holocaust Remembrance Day


Ottawa, January 27, 2012 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement to mark the United Nations’ annual International Day of Commemoration to honour the victims of the Holocaust:



“On this solemn 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp, I join Canadians and the international community in commemorating the millions of men, women, and children, who suffered, died and lost loved ones during one of the most heinous chapters in human history.







“Through indescribable atrocities, the fundamental and universal principles of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law were desecrated during the Holocaust.







“As we mourn those who were murdered by the Nazis more than six decades ago and honour the legacy of those who survived, let us use the lessons of the past to remind us of the importance of tolerance, and inspire us to take a stand against hatred and discrimination, including anti-Semitism in all its forms.







“We must never allow the crimes of the past to be repeated or forgotten.”







http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?category=3&featureId=6&pageId=49&id=4605











Ministers Kenney and Baird issue statement on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust







Ottawa, January 27, 2012 – The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, and The Honourable John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued the following statement on the 7th annual UN International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust:







The atrocity of the Holocaust stands out as unique in history for its cruelty, brutality and horror, for the vast scope of the Nazis’ genocidal plot, and for the systematic and bureaucratic way in which it was implemented -- what philosopher Hannah Arendt called ‘the banality of evil’.







Today, on the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp in occupied Poland, we remember the Holocaust’s victims. Six million Jews, including 1.5-million Jewish children, lost their lives during the Holocaust. That number represents one-third of the world’s Jewish population at the time. As well, millions of other European civilians were slaughtered because they belonged to groups of people deemed expendable, according to the Nazis’ heinous ideology.







Canada remains committed to fighting anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia, and to taking a leading international role in the promotion of Holocaust education and research. Canada’s efforts helped lead to the development of the Ottawa Protocol on Combating Anti-Semitism.







Next year, Canada will serve as Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. It is a role we undertake with a sense of duty and pride.







In his speech accepting the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said ‘Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.







The government encourages all Canadians to remember the victims of the Holocaust today and to honour their memory by rejecting all forms of hatred, intolerance and discrimination.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/statements/2012/2012-01-27.asp

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