Today, on September 9, Slovakia remembers the victims of the Holocaust and of racial violence.
During the ceremony Prime Minister Robert Fico along with other high representatives will lay the wreaths at the Memorial on Rybne square in Bratislava. They have been doing so since 2001 when the government chose September 7 as “Memorial Day for Victims of the Holocaust And of Racial Violence”.
On this day in 1941, the Slovak Government introduced 290 repressive laws (the "Jewish Codex") by which the process of Jewish deportations was initiated and which led to the killing of over 70,000 Slovak Jews. Commemoration events include the reading of the names of persecuted and murdered victims of the Holocaust in the historical building of the Slovak National Theatre, as well as the revealing of a "virtual memorial" containing the names of victims by the Museum of Jewish Culture.
