Memorial ceremony on UN Holocaust Remembrance Day held in Kathmandu

In Nepal, a memorial ceremony on the occasion of UN Holocaust Remembrance Day was held in Kathmandu on Thursday evening. A large number of people including diplomats from various countries paid tribute to the victims of Holocaust. This year theme is “Holocaust Remembrance: Demand and Defend Your Human Rights”.

The theme encourages youth to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust, act against discrimination and defend democratic values in their communities, at a time when the spread of Neo-Nazism and hate groups fuels the rising antisemitism and other forms of hatred around the world.

It also highlights the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Speaking at the ceremony, Resident Coordinator of United Nations Nepal, Wenny Kusuma, said that we can not and must not forget the past. She said commemoration of this day is the reminder of the horrors of Holocaust. Kusuma said from past to present to future it has been the promise of the United Nations that it should never happen again.

The Holocaust was genocide during World War II in which German Nazi regime murdered eleven million people including six million Jews. In 2005 the United Nations General Assembly declared 27th January as International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of Holocaust. This day marks the anniversary of liberation of Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz -Birkenau on 27th January 1945.