“We will never forget the 6 million Jews murdered in cold blood and all the victims of the Holocaust,” says European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Parliament will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day during a solemn plenary session on Tuesday in Brussels.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day marks this year the 80th anniversary of the libeation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola will open the solemn sitting followed by a musical performance of Pál Hermann’s concerto.

Corrie Hermann will then address MEPs and speak about the story of her father, Hungarian-born cellist and composer Pál Hermann whom the Nazis murdered in 1944. The music performance will feature his original Gagliano cello.

Born on 27 March 1902 in Budapest, Pál Hermann was a student of Béla Bartók and considered one of the best cellists of his era. He moved to Berlin in the 1920s and gave concerts all over Europe on his Gagliano cello. In 1933, Hermann fled to Belgium and France. Upon his arrest by the Nazis in Toulouse in 1944, he managed to throw a note from the train, asking for the Gagliano to be saved from the Nazis. The note was found and a friend of Hermann’s cycled 100 kilometres to rescue the instrument. He broke into Hermann’s house, replaced the Gagliano with a lesser instrument and escaped with the Gagliano strapped onto his back.

Hermann was murdered by the Nazis in a camp in the Baltics in 1944. His cello was rediscovered 80 years later being played by a competitor in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Pál Hermann’s daughter, Corrie (Cornelia) Hermann, now aged 92, will tell her father’s story, his tragic fate and his work during the commemorative plenary session.

Members of the European Parliament will observe a minute’s silence and the ceremony will end with a musical performance of “Kaddish” by Maurice Ravel.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe has a duty to honor the memories of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

‘’Tomorrow marks 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau,” she wrote in a post on X.

“We will never forget the 6 million Jews murdered in cold blood and all the victims of the Holocaust,” she added.

“As the last survivors fade, it is our duty as Europeans to remember the unspeakable crimes and to honor the memories of the victims.”

In a statement, the  members of the European Council said: ”As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mark the 80th year since the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. We remember the unprecedented horrors of the Holocaust. Six million Jews and millions of others were murdered, 1.1 million in Auschwitz alone.”

The statement adds: ”Today, we are witnessing an unprecedented increase in antisemitism on our continent, not seen since the Second World War. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the alarming rise in violent antisemitic incidents, Holocaust denial and distortion, as well as conspiracy theories and prejudice against Jews.”

”More than ever, it is crucial that we uphold our responsibility to honour the victims of the Holocaust. We are determined to combat antisemitism and to protect and foster Jewish life in Europe. We denounce all forms of discrimination, intolerance, racism, and xenophobia, and will take decisive action to address these threats to democratic societies,” it said.

”Respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the freedoms of expression and religion or belief, as well as the rights of persons belonging to minorities, must and will guide our actions at all times, in line with the values upon which our European Union is founded, and which are common to us all.”

The statement ended with the words ”Never again is now.”

In Poland, former deportees are expected to lay flowers at the Nazi death camp’s Wall of Death on Monday morning, at a ceremony attended by Polish President Andrzej Duda.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz are both expected, along with Israel’s Education Minister Yoav Kisch.