Wenn alles still ist, geschieht am meisten.
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
Wir schulden es den Opfern und Hinterbliebenen uns zu erinnern und durch das Bewussthalten uns und unseren Kindern eine Zukunft ohne solche Greueltaten und Krieg zu sichern. - Isabella Kramer, veredit 2014
In 1996, former German President Roman Herzog proclaimed January 27 the Day of Remembrance for Victims of National Socialism, in order to stress the importance of vigilance toward intolerance and hatred. The date was chosen for its significance in Holocaust history. On January 27, 1945 Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp where over one million men, women and children were killed.
The United Nations designated the same day in 2006 as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
Over six million people perished in concentration camps from forced labor, starvation, disease or extermination. The majority of the victims were Jews. The Nazi regime sent hundreds of thousands of others to their deaths during their reign of terror, whom the state deemed degenerate or a political threat, including the disabled, the mentally ill, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma, political enemies and members of religious organizations.
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