President Michael D Higgins has commemorated National Holocaust Memorial Day which marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Survivors of the Holocaust will gather at the former camp tomorrow along with world leaders and dignitaries to remember the 1.1 million people who were killed by the Nazis there during World War 2.
Speaking at the Mansion House in Dublin this evening, President Higgins said it was important to "respectfully and solemnly commemorate those who died or suffered at the hands of the Nazis" and to ensure that we "do all we can to ensure that such a horror never occurs again".
He said: "It is so important that our collective memory of events like the Holocaust is shared, passed on, that it remains prominent in our collective consciousness."
He also said it is important to remember what led to the "barbaric chapter" that was the Holocaust and that it would be wrong to consign the lessons that are to be learn from it to the past as they are still relevant in modern society.
@PresidentIRL Michael D. Higgins delivering tonights Keynote Address "Awareness of the Holocaust should be a core part of our schools curriculum" #HolocaustMemorialDay #HMD2020 pic.twitter.com/g28qMmF7hY
— Holocaust Education Ireland (@het_ireland) January 26, 2020
President Higgins commented that, since he first spoke at the Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Dublin eight years ago, "it is deeply worrying to observe an emerging trend of the rise of extremist language and politics across the streets of Europe".
Such rhetoric "frequently informs a populism that invokes fear, exclusion and rejection of the ‘other’" he said.
He said: "We are witnessing the growing rise of various forms of a corrupted, distorted version of an exclusionary and often bogus, indeed mythical, type of nationalism on virtually every continent.
"The toxicity of anti-Semitism is not absent from this rhetoric, and it should be identified and condemned for what it is – an invitation to hatred and hate speech.
He also said that "an ugly anti-migrant sentiment is attempting to rear its head in Ireland".
The commemoration, which was hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, was also attended by Holocaust survivors Tomi Reichenthal and Suzi Diamond, as well as Kinga Paszko, whose family received the honour of Righteous Among the Nations for saving the lives of a Jewish family during the Holocaust.
