Jan. 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by saying that denial of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany against the Jewish people will only cause for it to be repeated.
“Any denial or indifference to the horror of this chapter in the history of humankind diminishes all men and women everywhere and invites repetition of this great evil,” he said in a statement Sunday.
He added that the act of remembering the Jewish men and women who were killed during the Nazis’ extermination program “is to strive to prevent such suffering from happening again.”
President Trump also paid tribute to those who work to preserve the history of the Holocaust, saying that the post-Holocaust statement of “never again” means not only honoring those who perished but those who have kept this horrific history alive.
“‘Never Again’ means not only remembering — in a profound and lasting way — the evils of the Holocaust, but it also means remembering the individual men and women in this Nation, and throughout the world, who have devoted their lives to the preservation and security of the Jewish people and to the betterment of all mankind.”
The president tweeted out the statement with a picture or him and his wife Melania Trump at a Holocaust memorial service in Israel in 2017.
Other world leaders also expressed their commitment to preserving the history of the Holocaust.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement the Holocaust is a reminder of the dangers hatred and discrimination sow, and that the phrase “never again” is “a promise to remain vigilant against the threat of genocide.”
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted out a handwritten letter she wrote in the Holocaust Education Trust’s book of commitment, stating that words cannot bring justice to the six million Jewish people killed during the Holocaust “but we can pay a fitting tribute through our deeds today.”
The United Nations designated Jan. 27 International Holocaust Remembrance to honor the Jewish victims of the Holocaust on the day the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by Soviet forces in 1945.
