Newsletter Nr. 21

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will give the opening speech alongside President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

The interventions will be followed by an interview with Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas.

The ceremony will be livestreamed on 26 January 2022 at 4 PM CET.

The Commission is determined to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and in his opening remarks Vice-President Schinas will present the new ways of remembrance across policy areas that the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life puts forward. Katharina von Schnurbein will present the current challenges, including the worrying rise of Holocaust denial, distortion and trivialisation, and the actions and campaigns of the Commission to raise awareness and bring tangible changes. The commemoration event will take place on 24 January 2022 from 5 PM CET, and it will be livestreamed.

On 27 January 2022, Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice and Consumers, will open will open the conference on European Holocaust remembrance in Berlin where the Representation of the Commission has installed a “Stolperschwelle” giving voice to Shoah victims.

Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of life, Margaritis Schinas, Commissoner for Equality, Helena Dalli and Ana Gallego, Director-General DG JUST, will deliever opening speeches. Katharina von Schnurbein, Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, will speak during the panel discussion on 'European justice systems in the fight against new forms of intolerance, an overview of contemporary forms of intolerance and prospects for the European Union'.

The event will take place on 27 January 2022, from 9.30 AM CET.

77 years after the Shoah, in his keynote speech, Vice-President Schinas will emphasis the need for an international effort to remember the event that shaped Europe's and Jewish history and the life of the Jewish community and the urgency to establish a EU culture of remembrance so that we shall never again repeat the past. Katharina von Schnurbein in a conversation with Holocaust survivor Régine Suchowolski-Sluszny, will look into what this event meant for European Jews and what current generation can learn from the testimony of remaining survivors.

The speakers will each light a candle in memory of one victim of the six million Jews who perished in the Shoah. The commemoration ceremony will take place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January 2022 at 6.30 PM CET.

Ahead of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, EU welcomed the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a Resoulion on Holocaust Denial. Vice-President Schinas joined by saying:

I welcome today’s #UNGA Resolution, 80 years after the Wannsee Conference which tragically sealed the fate of millions of Jews. #Holocaust denial is #antisemitism and criminalised across the EU. Under our new EU Strategy we are stepping up our response, also internationally.

The Athens ceremony has been organised for over 20 years and is going to be attended by Greece Deputy Prime Minister, government officials, ambassadors, Greek religious leaders and Jewish community members.

The event hosted by H.E. Mr. Bujar Osmani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia, will take place on 26 January 2022, from 10 AM CEST.

In a podcast discussion at the European Parliament taking place on 24 January 2022, she will address the challenging rise of antisemitism across Europe and ways the European Commission is determined to put a stop to it.

On 25 January, in an interview for the Yearly Summit of the Israel on Campus Coalition, an American based NGO, Ms. von Schurbein will talk about the need for the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and actions the Strategy presents for the global fight against antisemitism.

In a conversation with Eddy Wax, POLITICO, organised by the European Jewish Community Center, she will present the EU Antisemitism Strategy on 26 January 2022.

On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ms. von Schnurbein will take part in an online coference on 'The Adoption and Implementation of the IHRA Definition on Antisemitism’ organised on 27 January 2022 by the European Christian Political Movement, the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Israel Allies Foundation.