The United Nations together with Embassy of the State of Israel, Embassy of the German Federation and Rato Bangala School marked the International Holocaust Day on 27 January 2016. The theme for this year is ‘Holocaust and the Human Dignity'.
Commissioner of National Human Rights Commission of Nepal Honourable Sudip Pathak and Ambassadors from various countries spoke about the importance of marking the day to remind the world that such incidents should never be repeated.
Six candles, representing the lives of six million who lost their lives during the Holocaust, were lit.
Winner of best documentary prize at Haifa International Film Festival, ‘Farewell Herr Schwartz’ was screened during the event. The movie is about the Holocaust from the perspective of a third generation survivor and how it is never too late to reclaim your heritage.
A musical piece was also performed by the students of Rato Bangala School which was an adaptation to a song composed by a Holocaust victim.
The main aim of marking this day was to educate the future generation of the human made brutality and the message that such cruelty should never be repeated.
A photo exhibition, “The Holocaust and Human Dignity” is also being organized at the Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal, to mark the event from 27-29 January.
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews (1.5 million of these were children) by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1930s and 40s in Europe but this persecution was not only limited to Jews, gypsies and gays were similarly targeted.
This is the second year since a program of this extent in remembrance of the Holocaust victims was organized in Nepal.