President marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Wednesday marked the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp saying that memory of the crimes committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust was necessary to prevent “the onslaught of evil.”

“The Holocaust is the most extreme manifestation of evil in human history and the most painful legacy of the twentieth century,” Sakellaropoulou said after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in the Greek capital.

“Millions of people were exterminated – not for something they did, but for what they were,” she said.

“The Holocaust concerns all of us, not only the Jewish people,” Sakellaropoulou said, adding that the Holocaust “is forever putting our historical conscience, our moral principles to the test.”

“No one is immune to barbarity,” she said.

“Cultivating historical memory, safeguarding [society] against hate speech and being vigilant in safeguarding democracy and human value are a bulwark against the onslaught of evil,” she said.

Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.