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Never Forget | Commemorating the Victims of National Socialism

January 27 stands as one of the most solemn dates in modern history. It is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism, marking the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Allied forces in 1945. What they found behind its gates revealed a depth of cruelty the world had never witnessed before—and must never allow again.

Auschwitz became the most notorious symbol of the Holocaust, a place where more than one million people—most of them Jews, but also Roma, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, and others deemed “undesirable” by the Nazi regime—were systematically murdered. Liberation did not bring relief alone; it brought the unbearable truth of industrialized genocide into the open.

National Socialism was not merely a political ideology. It was a machinery of dehumanization built on hatred, racism, antisemitism, and the dangerous myth that some lives were worth less than others. Across Europe, this ideology shattered families, erased communities, and left scars that still shape societies today.

January 27 is not only a day of mourning—it is a warning. It reminds us that such crimes did not begin with gas chambers, but with words, laws, and the quiet normalization of exclusion. Remembering the victims means more than honoring the dead; it means recognizing how fragile democracy and human dignity can be when fear and hatred go unchallenged.

As survivors grow fewer, remembrance becomes a shared responsibility. Education, truth, and vigilance are the safeguards against forgetting. To remember is to resist indifference. To remember is to affirm that every human life has value.

On this day, candles are lit, names are read, and silence speaks louder than words. The message endures across generations and borders:

Never forget. Never again.