More than 200 survivors of the Holocaust along with their families and members of the United Nations attended a solemn ceremony in United Nations to remember the victims on the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Opening the 45-minute ceremony on Friday, Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor said the UN is an entirely appropriate location for a ceremony marking the liberation of Auschwitz and it would not forget the six million people who lost their lives.
Acting President of UN General Assembly Brazilian Ambassador Ronald Mota Sardenberg said that the vigil at UN Headquarters symbolised 'the universal condemnation of the barbarous crime of genocide committed by the Nazi regime.'
January 27 was chosen by the UN General Assembly as the International Day to remember the victims of the Holocaust as on this day in 1945 the Auschwitz concentration fell in the hands of allied force during the World War II.
On November one last year, the General Assembly rejected 'any denial of the Holocaust as an historic event, either in full or part,' Sardenberg noted, referring to the adoption without a vote of a resolution on 'Holocaust Remembrance.'
Six Holocaust survivors read an excerpt from the UN Charter or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights one-by-one, as a family member stood beside and held a single candle representing one million Holocaust victims.
"This is a muted triumph right now," said Roman Kent, a survivor of the Auschwitz and Flossenberg concentration. "It is 60 years too late. But it is very important to have this now at the UN Headquarters."
Kent's 14-year granddaughter Eryn Avjian, who held the candle as he read from the preamble to the UN Charter, said the vigil helped everyone remember what people went through during the Holocaust. "I try to keep the knowledge of that period for myself and my peers," said the high school student.