International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018

Holocaust remembrance and education: our shared responsibility

Every year around 27 January, UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945. It was officially proclaimed International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations General Assembly. The 2018 commemorative theme “Holocaust Remembrance and Education: Our Shared Responsibility” underlines the continued duty to learn about and remember the Holocaust.

The Holocaust profoundly affected countries in which Nazi crimes were perpetrated, but also had universal implications and consequences in many other parts of the world. Member States share a collective responsibility for addressing the residual trauma, maintaining effective remembrance policies, caring for historic sites, and promoting education, documentation and research, seven decades after the genocide. This responsibility entails educating about the causes, consequences and dynamics of such crimes so as to strengthen the resilience of young people against ideologies of hatred. As genocide and atrocity crimes keep occurring across several regions, and as we are about to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, this has never been so relevant.

• Message from Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO
  Arabic - Chinese - English - French - Russian - Spanish

UNESCO global event

Film Premiere
Monday 22 January at 8:00 pm

Les quatre soeurs (part 1: Le serment d’Hippocrate), directed by Claude Lanzmann.
In the presence of the Director.
View trailer.
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Round table
Thursday 25 January at 3:30 pm

"Holocaust Remembrance and Education: Our Shared Responsibility"
with Serge Klarsfeld, UNESCO Honorary Ambassador and Special Envoy for Education about the Holocaust and the Prevention of Genocide, Henry Rousso, Historian, Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Floriane Hohenberg, Historian, Director of the International Tracing Service (ITS), Germany, Doudou Diène, lawyer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Senegal.
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Inauguration of the #StolenMemory exhibition
Thursday 25 January at 5.30 pm, Foyer Room I
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11th  Ceremony dedicated to the Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
Thursday 25 January at 6:30 pm

In the presence of Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director General, and Éric de Rothschild, President of Mémorial de la Shoah.
Screening of video Between listening and telling by Esther Shalev Gerz.
Witness testimony by Yvette Levy.
Concert by Ariela duo: Sigrid Hagn (piano) and Janina Ibel (Violin)
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CAMPUS UNESCO: " Deconstructing hate speech"
Friday 26 January from 10:00 to 11:30 am
More on the event
 

Exhibitions

Crystal Night (or The Night of Broken Glass), presented by the Shoah Memorial
See presentation
From 22 January to 2 February, UNESCO Headquarters
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The Stolen Memory, presented by the International Tracing Service
From  22 January to 28 February, UNESCO external fences
More on the event
 

Partners

The event is organized with the Mémorial de la Shoah

in partnership with ARTE France and Synecdoche

sponsored by

• the Permanent Delegation of Monaco to UNESCO
• the Permanent Delegation of Germany to UNESCO
• the Permanent Delegation of Austria to UNESCO
• Forum culturel autrichien
   

Resources

UN and UNESCO Resolutions

• UN Resolution 60/7 - Holocaust Remembrance (2005)
• UNESCO Resolution 61 - Holocaust Remembrance (2007)
• UN Resolution 61/255 - Holocaust Denial (2007)

Useful Links

• Education about the Holocaust and genocide
• Resources on education about the Holocaust and genocide
• Auschwitz Birkenau (World Heritage)
• Spotlight on Memory of the World heritage: The horrors of the Holocaust
• Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
• The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme

Background

• Previous editions: 2017 - 2016 - 2015 - 2014 - 2013
   

Follow us!

• Follow us on social media: #holocaustremembrance
• UNESCO is a partner in the #WeRemember campaign of the World Jewish Congress

• Education about the Holocaust and genocide
• Mémorial de la Shoah
• Download the programme