CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

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Good morning everyone,

I would like first of all to thank the colleagues present in the room and connected online.

I greet and thank Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Gyula Sárközi, representative of the Roma community, and the artists present in the room.

Today we remember that 76 years ago the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau were opened, revealing the horror of the Nazi genocide.

Despite the time that has passed, what unfolded before the eyes of witnesses is still here with us, with its terrible impact.

What happened in that concentration camp and in all the other death factories scattered throughout Europe, gives us a responsibility and imposes on us the obligation to watch over and keep the memory alive.

As Primo Levi wrote, "if understanding is impossible, knowing is necessary". Auschwitz reminds us and teaches us every day of what evil mankind is capable of if it lets itself be captured by fanaticism, hatred and abhorrent theories, the same that still today leads innocent blood to be shed in many parts of the world, putting at risk peace, civilization, and our mutual coexistence.

Because Auschwitz not only represents the culmination of a crazy and criminal ideology but is also a symbol of absolute evil, of the complex and meticulous system of annihilation put in place by the Nazi regime.

The persecution by the Nazis was, in fact, part of a project based on a frustrated nationalism, a virus that – as we see even today - can return and that we can never take for dead.

In the new order imagined by the Nazis, there could be no room for diversity, for dialogue, for the acceptance of the other. They wanted a society without Jews, without political dissidents, without homosexuals, without the mentally disabled, without prisoners of war, without Jehovah's Witnesses, without Roma, Sinti, Slavs ...

But above all it was on the hatred of the Jews that an ideological, legal and propaganda system was built.

Concentration camps and gas chambers were therefore the extreme consequence of this methodical process which aimed to define a hierarchy of human races, at the bottom of which Jews were placed.

Remembering is therefore a duty so that what has happened cannot happen again because each time it places us in front of the darker side of humanity, the total loss of the most basic feeling of compassion.

It is therefore our duty to remember why the reality of the concentration camps goes beyond human understanding and beyond the limits of the possibilities of expression.

The ideological and diabolical lure of fascism and Nazism must be remembered and condemned everywhere.

And now we must do it almost without the voices of those who lived it: the passage of time means we have to look at these events with the force of reason and without the precious help of those who experienced the devastation, the ferocity, and the ruinous force of the nationalist devil.

But we must also remember that those who experienced that horror have left democratic and European institutions in our custody.

The construction of Europe is not only an extraordinary political response to the horrors of National Socialism but it has also been one of the fundamental engines of the process of integration between democratic countries.

Our history teaches us that renewed nationalism will not protect us from pitfalls because the sacralization of borders as well as the search for a pure and unequivocal  identity will only produce new enemies.

Europe itself was born as a symbol of openness, cooperation, awareness of a common destiny. It was born from a great vision, from a courageous ideal that drew strength from such a huge tragedy as the one caused by the Second World War and the horrific Nazi designs.

This is why all of us Europeans must share responsibility for that custody: the custody of democracy and Europe.

Because Europe is the only reality that can allow us to rediscover that vocation that has led us to build a space of democracy in which law is the reference by which we regulate relations between our Member States, between our citizens, and tomorrow ,with those states that aspire to live with us.

As you know, we are living in a time of great change. In these difficult months we have learned to focus on our values, to understand the meaning of our interdependence.

The transformations taking place offer extraordinary opportunities, which we must use to improve the quality of our life, to correct the development of the economy and society to ensure social and environmental sustainability, to reduce distances and inequalities.

Today more than ever we must therefore act together and protect our cohesion, that is the context in which entire generations have experienced peace and have been able to build a model which for a long period has allowed well-being, economic growth, social and civil rights.

Because peace, solidarity, mutual understanding are multipliers of well-being and security. But this is possible only with a living, pluralistic, democratic society supported by principles of humanity: not a society of separate individual units, but based on our interconnections.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is not just an anniversary, above all it is an invitation to show our commitment, vigilance and responsibility.

To prevent denial and amnesia, we must all make this commitment to a clear and vigilant historical memory, capable not only of bearing witness but also of understanding, preventing, and intervening whenever the seeds of absolute evil spread.

A way to remember but also to honor the sacrifice of those who lost their lives fighting for a better world by defending the values ​​of freedom and justice.

Thank you.