'Never Again Is Every Day': Scholz’s Antisemitism Warning on Holocaust Remembrance Day
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday, January 27, called on all citizens to defend Germany’s democracy and fight antisemitism as the country marked the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau during World War II.
Since 1996, Germany has also marked January 27 as a day to remember the horrors of the Holocaust. “‘Never again’ is every day,” Scholz said in his weekly video podcast. “January 27 calls out to us: Stay visible! Stay audible! Against antisemitism, against racism, against misanthropy — and for our democracy.”
On that day in 1945, Soviet Red Army troops liberated some 7,000 prisoners at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland. The Nazis murdered more than a million people in Auschwitz, most of them Jews.
In the days before the liberation, the Germans had evacuated tens of thousands of other inmates on foot in what is now called the Death March, because many inmates died of exhaustion and cold in the sub-freezing temperatures. Altogether, they killed six million European Jews during the Holocaust.
On Saturday, as people in Germany put down flowers and lit candles at memorials for the victims of the Nazi terror, the German chancellor said that his country would continue to carry the responsibility for this “crime against humanity.”
He stressed that the fight against any kind of antisemitism and for democracy is not something that can be done by the government only, but needs the support of all Germans. (TOI / VFI News)
“Lord, we pray for all the Jewish families that have been affected by the Holocaust and suffer generational trauma to this day. We ask that You do not permit such a horrifying genocide to ever occur again and we pray that You stay near your people and shield them from malice. May we all be reminded of the Holocaust and the horrors Jewish people endured, and honor the memories of the dead.”
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