The Nazi operation aimed at the extermination of the Jews of Europe was a heinous crime; murder of humanity itself. And to the extent that humanity can conceive of the magnitude of this crime, peoples and governments have a duty to take every measure and initiative aimed at presenting the historical record with total honesty.
There were many Greeks among the countless victims slaughtered on the altar of Hitler’s regime. Tens of thousands of Greeks arrested only for having been born Jewish and hundreds of Christians who were arrested for resistance activities or for helping Jewish fellow citizens escape met with unbelievable suffering in the same hell.
Since 2004, when 27 January was officially designated Holocaust Remembrance Day, Greece has taken this annual opportunity to honor the victims of the Holocaust in events held throughout Greece.
But during the rest of the year, as well, the country makes ongoing efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and instruct younger generations. Greece participates actively, as an elected member, in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research, and is preparing a Permanent Greek Exhibit at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, in memory of the Greek citizens who were lost in the concentration camps. Greece also continues to play a leading role in initiatives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) Bad Arolsen Holocaust Archive in Germany. Greece is working to teach younger generations, to keep such crimes from happening in the future, and to honor the victims of the Holocaust not just once a year, but every hour of every day.
January 27, 2011