Auschwitz survivor Liliana Segre conveyed a message of humanity and of the duty to “never forget” to the European Parliament, during a solemn ceremony in Brussels to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The 84-year-old Italian Senator-for-life shared her experience of the evil inflicted in Auschwitz and the duty to bear witness.
Born into a Milan Jewish family, Segre was expelled from her primary school after the promulgation of Italian racial laws. In 1943 she was arrested with her family and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The only survivor among her relatives, after the end of the war in 1945 she returned to Milan. In the 1990s she started to speak to the public, especially young people, about her experience.
In her speech to the European Parliament, she recalled the inhumanity of the camps and “death marches” organised by the Nazis in 1945, which she survived as a young girl, unlike many others. ‘’They were merely guilty of being born,” she said, stating that she has a duty to bear witness, as long as she lives.
In a statement, European Parliament President David Sassoli as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed the duty of Europeans to stand up against anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination.
“Nazism and racism are not opinions but crimes,’’ Sassoli said.
“Auschwitz and all the factories of death scattered throughout the European area, represent a fundamental question to our society, our civilization, our culture and imposes obligations on us. Above all, it imposes an obligation to act whenever we see violence and discrimination, whenever an anti-Semitic and racist action occurs in our societies. ‘’
He added: ‘’Europe was built and should continue to be built on our diversity, representing a plurality of voices, with political, religious and cultural freedom. It is precisely for this reason that we must be grateful to Judaism, which allowed us to form that universalist spirit which is an integral part of our world-view.’’
“This is why we turn to governments to be vigilant to all forms of intolerance. The vandalism carried out in Jewish cemeteries, the assaults on synagogues and places of worship, the threats to which European Jewish families are subjected. To all the forms of intolerance that minorities face across each one of our Member States every day.’’
The Members of the European Parliament observed a minute of silence.