Vertegenwoordiger Tjechische president en Europese Commissie herdenken slachtoffers Holocaust in Terezin (en)

On the occasion of “Yom HaShoah” (Holocaust Memorial Day), a commemorative event for the victims of the Holocaust took place in Terezín today.

In the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra the exhibition Library of Rescued Memories, which is dedicated to the lives of Holocaust survivors, was also launched at this commemorative event.

Yom Ha-Shoah commemorates the beginning of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943. In a number of countries all over the world, the names of the people murdered during the Nazi terror are symbolically read aloud.  Since the beginning of the 1990s 100 names of the tens of thousands of the victims of the local Jewish ghetto are read aloud in Terezín every year.  This way, it would take 350 years to read the names of everyone who died in Terezín.  “We are commemorating an unbelievable six million Holocaust victims all over Europe.  We have gathered here every year since 1989 to read at least several names from the list of victims, thereby keeping their memory alive,” said Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra.  He also emphasised the moral legacy of the participants in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, who managed to stand up against the Nazi terror.  “The courage and moral strength that each of the participants was able to muster within himself, to stand up to lawlessness and to take his fate into his own hands, is a legacy for each of us, not only at this place and time, not only in the Czech Republic, but all over the world,” he said.

Today’s commemorative event included the opening of the exhibition “Library of Rescued Memories” organised by the corporation Centropa.  This exhibition of photographs by Edward Serotta is one of the projects that aids in the permanent commemoration of the Holocaust and educates about this dark chapter in Europe’s history.  That is why the exhibition has been supported by the Czech Presidency.  Through family photographs and period-materials, the exhibition documents the lives of the people who survived the Holocaust.  Subsequently, the exhibition will be moved to the Prague Congress Centre, as an accompanying event to the Conference on the Holocaust Era Assets.

The Czech Presidency is holding this significant international conference at the end of June in Prague and Terezín.  The conference should generate permanent interest in this issue among the international public.  “The Holocaust, Shoah, was not only the largest mass murder in history, but also the greatest organised mass robbery,” said Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, on this topic today.  The outcomes of the June conference should find reflection in teaching and in the effort to remedy the property damage and to care for the social and medical needs of those who have survived the Holocaust.

Today’s commemorative event was organised by the Terezín Memorial in cooperation with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic, and the Ministry of Culture.  In addition to Deputy Prime Minister Vondra, the event was also attended by Deputy Minister of Culture František Mikeš and the head of the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic, Irena Moosová.

Contact:

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  Michaela Jelínková, Spokeswoman of the Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs
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  Tel.: +420 224 002 796, GSM: +420 724 258 939, E-mail: eu-media@vlada.cz