Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Obama Vows To Fight Holocaust Denial

President Barack Obama pledged to combat Holocaust denial in a message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In his message, Obama said the United States would “pledge to speak truth to those who deny the Holocaust.”

“As we celebrate the strength and resilience of survivors, we pledge to stand strong against all those who would commit atrocities, against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and against hatred in all its forms,” he said.

Friday marks the seventh International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly to annually honor the six million Jewish men, women and children that were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Jan. 27 holds historical significance because it was the day in 1945 when the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum commemorated the day with remarks from a Holocaust survivor and one of its volunteers, Agi Geva, and the lighting of memorial candles in its Hall of Remembrance.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee,released a statement where she said that the U.S. “must remain vigilant, and we must implement robust Holocaust education programs to promote the values of tolerance, understanding and respect as an antidote against senseless hatred and aggression.”

The day was marked around the world.

In Buenos Aires, the Argentinean government joined the Jewish umbrella organization DAIA in marking the day. Warsaw ghetto survivor Irene Dib, DAIA President Aldo Donzis and Hector Timerman, the country’s Jewish foreign minister, delivered remarks.

Argentina is currently the president of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research. The task force, established a decade ago at the initiative of the Swedish government, aims to promote the remembrance of the Holocaust through education, research and memorial sites. It is comprised of 27 member countries, mostly European. Six international organizations belong as observers, including the United Nations and the European Union.

In Brussels, Haaretz reported, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he had a “specific responsibility” as a German to maintain Holocaust remembrance and said commemoration would now be marked annually by the parliament.

In Norway, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, speaking from the dock in Oslo where 532 Jews were deported in 1942, apologized for the role Norweigans played in facilitating the deportations. “Today I feel it is fitting for me to express our deepest apologies that this could happen on Norwegian soil,” Stoltenberg said, according to a translation published on the prime minister’s website.

Commemorations in Britain, France and Italy, among others, included the leaders of those nations.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.