January 27 Declared Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day

With the strong support of the Holy See, the United Nations decided to declare January 27 as an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, in memory of the victims of the atrocity. With this day of remembrance, the United Nations seeks to keep the memory alive in a bid to prevent future acts of genocide. January 27 marks the day in 1945 when an advancing Soviet army liberated the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations, took part in the debate, to stress that "remembering is a duty and a common responsibility." However, the archbishop lamented that "for 60 years we have had the horror of this kind of crime before us, in spite of which history has still repeated itself." "May the Holocaust serve as a warning to prevent us from yielding to ideologies which justify contempt for human dignity on the basis of race, color, language or religion," the papal representative said at the U.N. headquarters.