The unpleasant truth is: even today, antisemitism is everywhere. When anything, it is increasing within intensity. And the exact same is true for other forms associated with racism and hate: Anti-Muslim bigotry. Xenophobia. Homophobia. Misogyny. Neo-Nazi white supremacist movements today represent the main internal insecurity threat in a number of countries — and the fastest growing. My very own country, Portugal, is no exception. At the turn of the sixteenth century, King Manuel I signed the Edict of Expulsion of all Jews who refused to convert. It was a bad crime, and it was a good act of colossal stupidity. Portugal, deprived of cultural dynamism, entered a period of prolonged stagnation and decline. Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at a memorial service in honor of the victims of the Holocaust, at Park East Synagogue, in New York today: Today, as we remember all of them and countless, nameless other people, we also reflect on our responsibility: our responsibility to honour the storage of those who perished; to understand the truth of what happened, and also to ensure that neither we, nor future generations, ever forget; to refuse impunity just for perpetrators anywhere; to endure against those who deny, distort, relativize, revise or otherwise whitewash their own complicities or that of their fellow citizens; plus our responsibility to heighten our efforts in prevention — to discredit bias, to resolve conflicts and settle disputes before they erupt. We must never forget that will no place or time is ever immune to barbarism. Their venom is moving from the margins to the mainstream. Demonization of some other. Disdain for diversity. Denigration of democratic values. Disregard for human rights. These evils are not new to our time. What is brand new is their reach plus their speed. Rabbi Schneier, thank you so much for again welcoming myself in your home. Thank you for your own lifelong engagement for human being rights and dignity, religious freedom and respect, compassion and solidarity. I am deeply grateful to the ever-closer ties that bind us. The ties of personal friendship — and the connections of shared purpose with our United Nations. Inside families and across generations. Within classrooms plus across geographies. We have to tell the stories from the persecuted. The holocaust of the Roma and Sinti. The torture and murder of other sufferers targeted by the Nazis: persons with disabilities. Germans of African descent. Homosexuals. Soviet prisoners of war. Political dissenters and countless others. We have been together today to remember Jesse and with him, the 6 million Jewish children, the sexes, and million others who also perished in the Shoah. We are together to mourn the loss of so many and so a lot. And we are with each other to pledge to never neglect — nor let other people ever forget. First, conversion: the particular hate that says “you have no right to live in our midst as Jews”. Then, expulsion: the detest that says “you have zero right to live among us”. Until, lastly, destruction: the hate that will says, simply, “you have zero right to live”. We must confront falsehoods with facts, ignorance along with education, indifference with wedding. The fact is, we discover examples of religious extremism and intolerance in all societies and among all faiths these days. It is the duty of religious leaders everywhere to prevent instrumentalization of hatred plus defuse extremism amidst their particular followers. We remember individuals like Janusz Korczak, the Polish doctor, educator plus head of an orphanage within Warsaw. He refused offers to escape the Warsaw ghetto and stayed with the 200 children under their care — all the way to Treblinka, so they would not die alone. Our response should be clear. We must improve our defences and reject those who seek to refuse the past to reshape the near future. We must pledge — not simply to remember — yet to speak out and also to stand up. To speak out wherever we witness hate and to stand up meant for human rights and the dignity of all — today as well as for all days to come. It is a source of great joy that descendants of expelled Jewish families possess since exercised their right to regain Portuguese nationality. And it is a source of great honor that Lisbon will soon have a new museum focused on Portugal’s long and rich Jewish history — the particular Tikva Museum. A brief history that teaches us the cost of cultural diversity, the dangers of intolerance and the dark trajectory of hate through the age groups. Yesterday, at the General Assembly, I released an appeal to stop the particular hate and set up guardrails. I called away social media platforms, technology businesses and advertisers for their complicity in amplifying vicious lies for profit. I actually called for regulation to clarify responsibilities. And I known as on all of us to stand and stand firm against hate. And Governments all over the place have a responsibility to teach concerning the horrors of the Holocaust. The United Nations — which includes through our Holocaust Outreach Programme — is at the forefront of this crucial work. As fewer plus fewer can bear immediate witness, we will have to find new ways to carry the torch of remembrance forward. In his diaries, Victor Klemperer wrote: “Curious: At the very moment modern technology annuls all frontiers and distances […] the most extreme nationalism will be raging. ” He published these words in the 1930s. They have eerie vibration today. The Holocaust failed to happen as a “lesson” meant for humanity. But , this did happen. Also because it happened, it may occur again. We must in no way let down our guard. We must be forever aware. Antisemitism has been described as the canary in the fossil fuel mine of freedom. Throughout millennia, the persecution of Jews was a tag of rotten societies. The racist bigot who in the past may have spread his vitriol so far as his dinner table, today has a microphone with global achieve. The paranoid conspiracy theorist who in the past might have found a single acquaintance in order to confide in, today discovers a like-minded community associated with millions online. The outcomes are as troubling as they are dangerous. It is a massive privilege to finally come back in person with all of you in the wonderful Park Eastern Synagogue. Shabbat Shalom. And being in a synagogue, let me once again to express my outrage and condemnation in relation to the vicious terrorist attack that will claimed so many innocent sufferers outside another synagogue within Jerusalem. And above all, we must tell the stories of all the children, women and men who were systematically murdered and who collectively made up the rich plus vibrant mosaic that was Judaism life in Europe. We must remember the Holocaust not as the history of 6 million deaths; but since 6million different stories of death. “I should such as someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger. ” David themselves wrote these words, during the time just 19 years old. He wrote them in 1941, in Vilna, in present-day Lithuania. It was his last letter. For you — as well as for all survivors among this congregation and beyond — I have come here to express: We stand with you — grateful for your life’s work, and committed to maintain your memory alive today and in the future. We remember Friedl Dicker-Brandeis who taught artwork to children in the Theresienstadt Ghetto — encouraging them to paint or draw to ensure that, if only for a moment, they may feel safe. In 1944, Friedl and her students were murdered within the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
‘Confront Falsehoods with Facts, Lack of knowledge with Education, Indifference with Engagement’, Says Secretary-General with Holocaust Remembrance Service
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