Ministers, Government Officials, and Heads of International Organizations Gather to Reaffirm Commitment to Combating Holocaust Distortion, Antisemitism, and Discuss Relevant Issues at Conference Held to Mark the 75^th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

 (Brussels, Belgium) January 19, 2020:  The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) welcome the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) 2020 Ministerial Declaration honoring victims and survivors of the Holocaust (Shoah), which was adopted today at a conference in Brussels to mark the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Ministers, high-ranking government representatives from the 34 member state countries of the IHRA, as well as Heads of international organizations, gathered to reaffirm their commitment to combating Holocaust distortion, antisemitism, other forms of discrimination, and discuss relevant issues at the conference.

“We applaud the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) today and are proud to have been associated with IHRA since its very beginning,” said Julius Berman, President of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). “It is our moral obligation that we continue to work together to make sure that Holocaust survivors around the world are able to live their lives with dignity and that we keep fighting against antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion, and all forms of racism and discrimination.  We must also lead worldwide efforts to support Holocaust education.”

“We welcome this powerful declaration,” said Gideon Taylor who represented the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) at the gathering.  “Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the international community has a limited window of opportunity to help survivors live out the remainder of their lives with dignity, and to secure justice for Holocaust victims whose property was wrongfully taken from them by the Nazis, their allies, and their collaborators.”

The conference also marked the 20^th anniversary of the Stockholm Declaration on the Holocaust and was jointly hosted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the Government of Luxembourg.

The 2020 IHRA Ministerial Declaration includes fourteen points that the member states support including,

• Pledge to the victims and survivors that they shall never be forgotten and that their legacy will be kept alive;
• Safeguard the historical record of the Holocaust, the genocide of the Roma, and the persecution of other victims by Nazi Germany and those fascist and extreme nationalist partners and other collaborators who participated in these crimes;
• Underline the importance of identifying, preserving, and making available archival materials, testimonies, and authentic sites for educational purposes, commemoration, and research;
• Encourage all countries and societies to address their respective pasts by dealing openly and accurately with the historical record.

A link to the 2020 IHRA Ministerial Declaration can be found here.

More information about the Claims Conference can be found here.

More information about The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) can be found here.