UNIS/SGSM/1296
25 January 2023
Today, we honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
We remember the six million Jewish children, women, and men, as well as the Roma and Sinti, the people with disabilities, and countless others who perished.
We reflect on the millions of individual lives cut short; the millions of futures stolen away.
As we mourn the loss of so many and so much, we also recognize that the Holocaust was not inevitable. No genocide ever is.
It was the culmination of millennia of antisemitic hate.
The Nazis could only move with calculated cruelty from the discrimination of Europe’s Jews to their annihilation because so few stood up, and so many stood by.
It was the deafening silence – both at home and abroad – that emboldened them.
The alarm bells were ringing from the very beginning.
Hate speech and disinformation.
Contempt for human rights and the rule of law.
The glorification of violence and tales of racial supremacy.
Disdain for democracy and diversity.
In remembering the Holocaust, we recognize threats to freedom, dignity, and humanity – including in our own time.
Today – in the face of growing economic discontent and political instability, escalating white supremacist terrorism, and surging hate and religious bigotry – we must be more outspoken than ever.
We must never forget – nor allow others to ever forget, distort or deny the Holocaust.
Today and every day, let us resolve to never again remain silent in the face of evil – and to always defend the dignity and rights of all.
Thank you.
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Barbados signed and deposited its instrument of ratification for the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (the “Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships”) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 8 May 2025.
Journalists are invited to cover the 34th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) to be held from 19 to 23 May in Vienna, Austria.
"On this Day of Vesak, I extend my warmest wishes to Buddhists worldwide as they commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha." — António Guterres
"In a world plagued by conflict and division, World Press Freedom Day highlights a fundamental truth: Freedom for people depends on freedom of the press." — António Guterres
