German Envoy To UN Vows To Counter Anti-Semitism On Int'l Holocaust Remembrance Day

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2020) Germany's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Christoph Heusgen told the General Assembly that his country will take all appropriate steps to combat the surge of anti-Semitism both nationally and globally in order to prevent the tragic events of the Holocaust from happening again.

"I am too ashamed standing in front of you today, knowing that it was Germans, my countrymen and countrywomen, who were responsible for the complete breakdown of civilization," Heusgen said on Monday. "We will do all in our power to counter... a renewed rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and in the world. We must protect Jewish life, and we will stand by Israel."

Heusgen said that the protection of these values for Germany is a part of the national identity and its commitment to human rights and democracy.

Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, also emphasized the need to learn the lessons of history to prevent such a massacre from reoccurring.

"That is why we are uncompromising with attempts to rewrite history, equate the victims and aggressors. We must not turn a blind eye to manifestations of aggressive nationalists, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racism," Nebenzia added.

The Holocaust refers to the period from 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed the position of the German chancellor, to 1945, the year the Second World War ended. It involved the mass persecution and murder of German and European Jewry, culminating in the ethnic cleansing program, dubbed as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question.'" Jews were relocated to ghettos and concentration and extermination camps where they were either murdered or died from malnutrition, disease, hunger and inhumane treatment. Six million Jews died throughout the tragic period.