“On 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the international Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust and National Remembrance Day for the Greek Jewish Heroes and Martyrs of the Holocaust, we honor the memory of the millions of victims of the most heinous crime in modern history, and we reiterate our unswerving commitment to keep such crimes from being committed again.
It is our duty to keep the memory of these crimes alive from generation to generation - crimes that shocked humanity - in order to keep them from being repeated.
Becoming oblivious to these crimes could prove as fateful as the atrocities themselves. As a country whose thriving Jewish community was almost obliterated by the Nazi crimes, Greece recently gave the option of re-acquiring Greek citizenship to those citizens of Israel who had it in the past and lost it in any way during World War II, thus contributing to the revitalization of ties with this historic community.
Each of us - as well as the international community as a whole - has a duty to fight bigotry and prejudice in any form it may take, and to continue to work continuously for the peaceful coexistence of peoples”.
January 27, 2012