International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed on January 27, marks 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz\u2011Birkenau, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp where more than one million people were murdered before Allied forces liberated the site in the final months of World War Two.<\/p>\n
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T\u00fcrk expressed deep concern over the global rise in antisemitism, citing recent \u201cheinous attacks\u201d against Jewish communities in Sydney and Manchester. He warned that \u201chatred and dehumanisation are creeping into our daily lives,\u201d and called for renewed vigilance against rhetoric and actions that echo the early stages of historical atrocities.<\/p>\n
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He reminded the world that the Holocaust, during which six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, did not begin with death camps, but with indifference, discrimination, and the dehumanisation of others.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe genocide did not begin with concentration camps and gas chambers; it started with apathy and silence in the face of injustice, and with the corrosive dehumanisation of the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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This year\u2019s theme, Holocaust Remembrance for Dignity and Human Rights, highlights the ongoing relevance of historical memory in confronting modern threats to human rights and democracy. T\u00fcrk stressed the need for societies to uphold anti\u2011discrimination laws and reject political rhetoric that seeks to divide people rather than unite them.<\/p>\n
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He called for \u201claws that prohibit discrimination, and politicians who do not polarise by calling out differences, but unite by calling out injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Safeguarding the future, he argued, requires comprehensive education on the Holocaust, lifelong human rights learning, and robust, inclusive digital content regulation to ensure people can speak freely without fear of abuse or hate.<\/p>\n
The High Commissioner warned that the tools of our time, including global human rights frameworks, fact\u2011based information systems and a shared historical record, must be used effectively to combat what he described as a worsening \u201cplague\u201d of racism, antisemitism and dehumanisation.<\/p>\n
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He urged individuals everywhere to challenge intolerance in personal and public spaces alike. \u201cTogether, we must challenge exceptionalism, supremacy, and bigotry wherever we encounter them: at the dinner table, at our workplaces, and on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Each person, he said, holds the power to help shape a fairer and more inclusive world. T\u00fcrk concluded his remarks by invoking the spirit of Anne Frank and paying tribute to her step\u2011sister, Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, who passed away only weeks ago. Their messages, he said, continue to offer guidance for today.<\/p>\n
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He recalled Anne Frank\u2019s enduring words, \u201cNobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
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–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16402,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-22974","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T\u00fcrk has urged the international community \u201cnot only to look at our past, but to reflect on our present, and to safeguard our future. ","published_date":null,"news_description":"United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T\u00fcrk has urged the international community \u201cnot only to look at our past, but to reflect on our present, and to safeguard our future. ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26093,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22974\/revisions\/26093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}