27 January is the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the United Nations. The European Commission has committed to mark this day in its 2021 EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life. In 2025, it will also mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Holocaust is a defining legacy of European history, during which six million Jewish children, women and men, as well as hundreds of thousands of Roma were murdered. Many other victims also suffered from Nazi persecution. For many decades, thousands of Shoah survivors have served the public and strengthened European democracy by sharing the testimonies of their painful survival. First-hand accounts of the Holocaust continue to have the most powerful impact on following generations. We will be honoured to have a Holocaust survivor sharing her first-hand account with us during this commemoration ceremony. As we face the highest levels of antisemitism in Europe since the foundation of the EU, and a rise of Holocaust distortion and conflation with the conflict in the Middle East, it is now more important than ever to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Therefore, on 21 January 2025, the European Commission, in partnership with the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, will organize the Holocaust Remembrance Conference: Remembering the Past. Shaping the future.

This conference is organized in cooperation with the American Jewish Congress, B'nai B'rith International, European Jewish Congress, Conference of European Rabbis, European Jewish Community Centre, European Jewish Association, European Union of Jewish Students, European Union for Progressive Judaism, HIAS Europe, Masorti Europe and the World Jewish Congress.