Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic led a delegation of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the World Forum on the Holocaust in Jerusalem. The Fifth World Holocaust Forum, attended by numerous national delegations, is being held in Yad Vashem.
The theme of this year’s forum was “Remembering the Holocaust and Fighting Anti-Semitism”, and Chairman Komsic, along with 40 other world leaders, also attended a commemoration commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Afterward, the leaders toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center and laid wreaths in the Hall of Remembrance to pay homage to the Holocaust victims during World War II.
Chairman Komsic said during the conference that, unfortunately, in the world, but in Bosnia-Herzegovina as well, there are still elements of fascism that we must all fight against, in order to provide a better environment for future generations. “The Holocaust is a unique crime against one nation – the Jewish people.
The most brutal crime of the last century, remembered by human civilization, carefully planned and carried out, has left unprecedented consequences on the Jewish people, but also on the entire world. Unfortunately, what was happening during the Nazi regime in the Second World War some people did not have a lesson.
The people in Bosnia-Herzegovina deeply sympathize and share the fate of the Jews. The people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in recent history, have been victims of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, which “Many lives have been taken away. Personally, I feel deep sadness and sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust and the Jewish people. The Holocaust must never be forgotten,” said Chairman Komsic, Klix.ba news portal reports.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in German-occupied Poland. Russian soldiers discovered thousands of sick, dying, and dead prisoners when they entered the complex of concentration camps, forced labor camps, and a killing center abandoned by the Nazis. The Schutzstaffel (SS), Hitler’s paramilitary organization, had attempted to destroy the camp before fleeing and forcing 60,000 prisoners on a westward “death march.” Their efforts did little to conceal abundant evidence of mass murder and other atrocities that claimed the lives of more than 1.1 million prisoners.
Auschwitz was the largest camp created by Nazi Germany and its collaborators to imprison and murder people they perceived as a “racial” or political threat, especially European Jews. By the end of World War II, the Holocaust had claimed the lives of over 6 million Jewish people—nearly two out of every three in Europe. This display of historic records and footage is presented in memory of all Jewish victims of the Holocaust and other victims of Nazism.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an international memorial day designated by the United Nations to mark the anniversary of the January 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp.
The Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust is an annual commemoration designated by the U.S. Congress to mark the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. In 2020, Holocaust Remembrance Day is April 21.
While the Nazis had attempted to hide evidence of mass murder, “millions of clothing items and tons of hair told their own appalling story”, the UN chief said, opening an exhibit at UN headquarters in New York marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The closure of the camps marked the end of the Holocaust itself, but it was just the beginning of efforts to ensure that such crimes never happen again.
Understanding our history connects us to the essential human values of truth, respect, justice and compassion – UN chief
“I will never forget my visit to Yad Vashem two years ago”, Mr. Guterres recalled, referring to The World Holocaust Remembrance Center located in Jerusalem. “I was shocked once again by the ability of antisemitism to reinvent itself and re-emerge time and again, over millennia”.
