Statement by President Meloni on Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

On 27 January 81 years ago, the gates of Auschwitz were torn down and the world saw with its own eyes the abyss of the Shoah.

From that moment, everything changed. The largest killing machine ever conceived in human history revealed to everyone its ferocity, its systematic nature, and its diabolical plan. Millions of people were torn from their homes and killed in death camps, simply because they were Jewish. A plan devised and implemented to erase all traces of the age-old, fruitful presence of Jewish people and Jewish communities from Europe.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember the names and surnames of the victims and we renew our remembrance of what happened, also through the valuable first-hand accounts of survivors and their descendants. Today we commemorate the Righteous Among the Nations, who did not hesitate to risk it all to oppose the Nazi plan and save innocent lives. Today, we once again condemn the complicity of the fascist regime in persecuting, rounding up and deporting people. A dark page in Italy's history, sealed by the disgrace of the 1938 racial laws.

Unfortunately, all these years on, antisemitism has still not been definitively defeated. It is a plague that has once again begun to spread, with new and virulent forms. Today we reaffirm our commitment to preventing and combatting all manifestations of this scourge, which poisons our societies and seeks to destroy the principles of freedom and respect that underpin social cohesion.

[Courtesy translation]