On the occasion of World Holocaust Remebrance Day, Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic says that remembrance of the events that manifest the greatest human suffering in the 20th century is not only an obligation to the past, but also a pledge for the future. Millions of innocent people died so that we would have a common future today, and if we forget that, we are in danger of this evil happening again.

Today, with fewer and fewer surviving witnesses, we have an obligation to pass on to young generations the memories of the victims and reminders of the horrors that were caused by misunderstanding and hatred of other and different  – says the Commissioner and states that we have to pay special attention to the education. It is very important that children nurture the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in schools, through teaching and extracurricular activities, to get acquainted with historical facts, because each of us has the obligation to oppose anti-Semitism and all other forms of discrimination. It is necessary to teach children to respect differences and to look at people around them as equal, regardless of religion, skin color, gender or sexual orientation.

World Holocaust Remembrance Day must also be a warning of how dangerous discrimination is and which catastrophic consequences it has led to in history. Violation of human rights and incitement of racial, national and religious hatred and intolerance, acceptance of such attitudes and not opposing to them, can lead to unforeseeable consequences in the future and therefore it is necessary to constantly point out and remind the importance of respecting human rights, emphasized the Commissioner.

Commissioner Brankica Jankovic is attending the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, as a member of a state delegation led by Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.