Slovenia is marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day
STAJanuary 27, 2022 – To commemorate the six million Jews killed by the Nazis and their followers during World War II, the facade of the National Assembly will be lit tonight as Slovenia joins the commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Holocaust victims are being honored with several events this week. The main ceremony took place on Wednesday in Lendava, where President Borut Pahor called for peace, security, tolerance and coexistence.
To achieve this, both individuals and communities at home and in the international community must promote a culture of remembrance, dialogue and peaceful conflict resolution, the president added.
Pahor said that people should do everything in their power to make sense prevail, to calm things down and for diplomacy to gain strength, to solve problems around the world and to save current and future generations from conflicts.
Prior to the ceremony, a delegation of Pahor and Israeli Ambassador Eyal Sela laid a wreath at the Jewish cemetery in Dolga vas in the northeast of the country.
The President then visited Erika Fürst, a Jew from Prekmurje, Slovenia, who survived the Holocaust, with whom Pahor attended many memorial ceremonies in recent years, and wished her good health and vitality.
The National Assembly has joined the #WeRemember campaign, launched by the World Jewish Congress in collaboration with UNESCO, which urges people around the world to spread the message in a variety of ways, including social media.
The week-long campaign includes the lighting of important monuments and the projection of moving messages in public places.
“Our duty and the only promise for a better tomorrow is to nurture the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and nurture a common life in peace with all, including those different from us,” said President Igor Zorčič.
“Only by preserving the memory of past atrocities and injustices and by promoting universal human values and human rights can we prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. It is therefore important and urgent that we do everything in our power to support the efforts , which are covered by the #WeRemember Campaign, “Zorčič added.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been celebrated since 2006, when it coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp and death camp, in 1945.
More than 2,300 people were deported from Slovenia to the camp, and more than 1,300 died there. Of those deported, 350 were Jews and at least 78 Roma.
The Slovene Jewish community was almost destroyed during the Second World War; out of around 1,500 Jews in 1939, only about 200 Slovene Jews survived the war.