Minister participates in ceremony marking International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto van Klaveren, participated in the ceremony for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. This date, adopted in 2005 by the United Nations on the occasion of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birnkenau extermination camp on January 27, 1945, seeks to pay tribute to the six million Jews, as well as gypsies, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Freemasons, political dissidents and all those persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

“It is the duty of the entire international community to commemorate each of those victims, just as it is our duty to ensure that tolerance, unrestricted respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence prevail as minimum civilizational standards,” said the Minister in his speech.

“The survivors of the Holocaust will not be with us forever, but their legacy must live on. We must preserve the memory of the victims, preserve their stories through education, but most importantly, by acting decisively to prevent genocide and other grave crimes that must never be repeated. The tragedy of the Holocaust reminds us that human rights are not merely abstract statements, but fundamental principles linked to the human dignity of all,” he added.

The ceremony, which was attended by the president of the Jewish Community in Chile, Ariela Agosín, and the Israeli ambassador to Chile, Gil Artzyeli, included the traditional lighting of seven candles symbolizing the commitment to keep alive the memory of the victims, with the presence of the Minister Foreign Affairs, the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Gloria de la Fuente, and the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, Claudia Sanhueza, together with Holocaust survivors and other authorities.

In addition, the Jewish Community in Chile presented the “Light and Memory” award to Ana María Marón, an outstanding Chilean psychologist and academic who has worked tirelessly for the defense of human rights and to keep the memory of the Shoah alive.