2025 Holocaust Remembrance and Education for Dignity and Human Rights
By Henry Levy
Prayers and a moment of silence at the United Nations Observance of International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
January 27, 2025 was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This milestone year accounted for a larger than usual attendance at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony held in the UN’s General Assembly. 2025 marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust.
Eighty years ago, in response to the atrocities of the war and the Holocaust, governments of the world established the United Nations, pledging to work together to build a just world where human rights were enshrined, and all could live with dignity, in peace.
Acknowledging the milestone year, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme has chosen as its guiding theme for 2025, “Holocaust remembrance and education for dignity and human rights”.
The theme reflects the critical relevance of Holocaust remembrance for the present, where the dignity and human rights of our fellow global citizens are under daily attack.
The Holocaust shows what happens when hatred, dehumanization and apathy win.
Its remembrance is a bulwark against the denigration of humanity, and a clarion call for collective action to ensure respect for dignity and human rights, and the international law that protects both.
Holocaust remembrance safeguards the memories of survivors and their testament of life before the Holocaust – of vibrant communities, of traditions, of hopes and dreams, of loved ones who did not survive.
Safeguarding the history brings dignity to those the Nazis and their collaborators sought to destroy.
Remembrance of the Holocaust is a victory against the Nazis and their collaborators, and against all who would try to continue their legacy through spreading hatred, Holocaust distortion and denial into the 21st century.
Jewish women and children from Subcarpathian Rus selected by the Nazi SS for death, walk toward the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945). Those pictured include Jolan Wollstein of Szombathely, her children Erwin, Judith, Dori and Naomi, her non-Jewish governess Edith, Henchu Mueller Falkovics, Kreindel Vogel and her sister Sase Vogel and Rita Gruenglass.
Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem (Public Domain)
CURRENT & FUTURE EVENTS
16 January – 21 February 2025
Exhibition: Holocaust Remembrance - A Commitment to Truth
Visitors’ Lobby, United Nations Headquarters
80 years after the Holocaust ended, Holocaust remembrance remains an imperative: a haunting reminder of what happens when prejudice is left unchallenged, and dignity and rights destroyed. Through the testimony of survivors and photographs, the exhibition provides an overview of the Holocaust, the antisemitism and other factors that facilitated it and the terrible atrocities perpetrated against victims of the Nazis and their racist collaborators. The exhibition illustrates the courage of victims to resist dehumanization.
Exhibition: Lest We Forget
Visitors’ Lobby, United Nations Headquarters
This exhibition provides glimpses of moments of kindness and compassion, of life enjoyed, and of the intimate connections that existed in Jewish families and communities before the Holocaust. The photographs stand as stark evidence of the deep and terrible loss and destruction wrought by the Nazis and their racist collaborators during the Holocaust, in their attempt to destroy all trace of Jewish life, tradition, communities, homes, families and individuals. The photographs reflect the humanity of the victims of the Holocaust, and underline the scale of the destruction of the Nazis and their racist collaborators. The photographs remind us of our common humanity, and our responsibility to defend the right of all to live with dignity and in peace.
Exhibition: Auschwitz - A Place on Earth. The Auschwitz Album
Visitors’ Lobby, United Nations Headquarters
This exhibition depicts the only known visual documentation - The Auschwitz Album - of the process leading to the mass murder perpetrated by the Nazis at Auschwitz Birkenau. The Auschwitz Album is a source of invaluable evidence, a silent and powerful rebuke against the people who created and ran the death camps. This exhibit is organized by Yad Vashem and endorsed by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme and the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations.
The exhibitions are free and open to the public. No registration is required.
Monday, 21 April 2025
Presentation and Panel Discussion: Dedication
6:30 p.m. EST, United Nations Headquarters
The event comprises an educational presentation by Mr. Roger Peltzman about the Holocaust and its impact, and a panel discussion. Mr. Peltzman is a pianist, educator and son of a Holocaust survivor. His storytelling presentation recounts the experience of his uncle, a young pianist murdered during the Holocaust. His uncle’s history inspired Mr. Peltzman to pursue music as a way to connect with his family history and cope with second-generation survivor trauma. The event highlights the courage of victims and survivors of the Holocaust, considers the challenges they faced after the Second World War, and how the Holocaust is understood and remembered by their children.
