2025 International Day Of Commemoration In Memory Of The Victims Of The Holocaust

The Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities (AIPG) observes January 27, 2025, as the 20th International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, marking the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. The United Nations General Assembly established this annual International Day in November 2005 through General Assembly Resolution 60/7. This day serves as a poignant reminder of the atrocities committed during one of the darkest chapters in human history.

2025 marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Eighty years ago, in response to the atrocities of the war and the Holocaust, governments of the world established the United Nations, pledging to work together to build a just world where human rights were enshrined, and all could live with dignity, in peace. Acknowledging the milestone year, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme has chosen as its guiding theme for 2025, “Holocaust remembrance and education for dignity and human rights”.

The theme reflects the critical relevance of Holocaust remembrance for the present, where the dignity and human rights of our fellow global citizens are under daily attack. The Holocaust shows what happens when hatred, dehumanization and apathy win.

Its remembrance is a bulwark against the denigration of humanity, and a clarion call for collective action to ensure respect for dignity and human rights, and the international law that protects both. Holocaust remembrance safeguards the memories of survivors and their testament of life before the Holocaust – of vibrant communities, of traditions, of hopes and dreams, of loved ones who did not survive.

Safeguarding the history brings dignity to those the Nazis and their collaborators sought to destroy. Remembrance of the Holocaust is a victory against the Nazis and their collaborators, and against all who would try to continue their legacy through spreading hatred, Holocaust distortion and denial into the 21st century.

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The theme of the 2025 observance is reflected throughout the Auschwitz Institute’s work and programs, which recognize the importance of preventing identity-based violence and the efforts to foster resiliency by dealing with the long-term consequences of mass atrocities. This theme is part of the core of many of AIPG's programs such as the Raphael Lemkin Seminar, which continues to create a community of policymakers educated in the latest genocide prevention policy strategies, supporting each other to identify best practices for preventing and dealing with atrocity crimes, especially in places of high risk. The Theme of 2025 is also prevalent in the recently concluded Memory Sites and Prevention project which analyzed how memory practices in a selection of post-atrocity societies have succeeded at mitigating atrocity risk factors, and therefore have made the recurrence of violence less likely.