The Holocaust Victims and Racial Violence Remembrance Day serves as a reminder to us all, calling on us to keep our memory alive, Kosice Metropolitan Archbishop and Conference of Bishops of Slovakia (KBS) chairman Bernard Bober stated to mark Wednesday's day of remembrance.
Bober noted that we're commemorating the immense suffering of thousands of innocent men, women and children whose lives were destroyed by a perverse ideology based on the abuse of power, prejudice and hatred. "These dark chapters of history remind us of the abyss to which humanity can be led by questioning the sanctity of every human life and denying inalienable human dignity, regardless of race, nationality or religion. Awareness of our own failings and the suffering that also took place on our own soil must lead us to a renewed commitment never to compromise on our principles, to seek the truth and to strive for peace in our relationships with one another," said the KBS chairman.
At present, as we witness growing tensions, divisions within society and unrelenting armed conflicts around the world, "our responsibility is all the greater", stated Bober, stressing that we shouldn't remain indifferent to manifestations of intolerance, anti-Semitism or any form of denigration of human beings.
Slovakia commemorates 9 September as a national memorial day - the Day of the Victims of the Holocaust and Racial Violence. On this day in 1941, the wartime Slovak government adopted a Jewish Code that introduced a separate legal regime for citizens of Jewish origin and faith, significantly restricting their civil, religious, social and basic human rights on the territory of the then Slovakia.
The decree consolidated legal regulations enforcing the social, economic, and civil degradation of Jews, which ultimately led to their deportation to Nazi concentration camps.
At 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the 17th annual Reading of the Names of Holocaust Victims will take place at the Pavel Országh Hviezdoslav Theatre (DPOH) in Bratislava. The aim is to remind people that behind the numbers of Holocaust victims were real individuals and individual human stories. Admission to the event is free.
“Names of people deported to extermination camps will be read from the deportation lists dating from 1942, where the vast majority of them perished. The purpose of the event is to remind people that behind the numbers of Holocaust victims were real individuals and individual human stories. By publicly speaking their names, the organizers will symbolically restore to them their names, identities and human dignity, which persecution and extermination sought to take away from them. This year marks 85 years since September 9, 1941, when the government of the then Slovak state issued a decree concerning the legal status of Jews, known as the Jewish Code,” the organizers explained.
Source: TASR
