“We remember the victims of the Holocaust. We remember the six million Jewish people, Romani people, LGBT communities and many others who were stripped of their dignity because of their religious faith, their ethnicity, race or disability”. This was said by the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola during today’s ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration and extermination camp in 1945. “The path that led to Auschwitz and the Holocaust began generations before, with scapegoating, bullying and dehumanisation. It began with ostracising those seen as different”.

Metsola added: “The German Nazi regime exterminated 17 million men, women and children and inflicted unimaginable suffering and pain on millions more, while others’ silence stood complicit”. “I am proud that the European Parliament is not a place of indifference. I am proud that this House speaks up against Holocaust deniers, against conspiracy myths, against disinformation and against violence that deliberately targets and singles out members of our communities. Because, despite decades of effort, we have not yet done enough to combat discrimination”.