Summary: January 27, 2005: European Parliament - Borrell: "Auschwitz is engraved on the collective memory of humanity" (Brussels)
Parliament President Josep BORRELL made the following statement to MEPs:
"This is a day of sad memory for humanity as a whole. It was on this day in 1945 that soldiers of the Red Army liberated the Nazi extermination camp whose name is engraved in the collective memory of humanity. Auschwitz is a name of absolute horror, the name of a planned, industrialised and documented crime. It is a surprise that it could have happened, but it did. It is unimaginable, but it is a reality.
A delegation from the European Parliament, including myself and the leaders of all the political groups, will go to Auschwitz to take part in a memorial ceremony for the victims. We will remember the evil which led to the deaths of so many Jews - simply for being Jews - ethnic minorities, homosexuals and political prisoners from several countries and which affects us all.
It is hard to keep a just memory of these events without having been there. It is a battle against the weakness of human memory. But if we forget history we are condemned to repeat it.
The Holocaust was a tragedy for the whole of humanity. Today we must continue the fight against those things which made it possible: anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, interracial hatred and indifference in part of our society. We must know what happened and why, and we must not remember too late.
This is something we must confront every day, so that the values of our constitution - human rights, respect and tolerance - are disseminated everywhere. The commemoration of Auschwitz is an opportunity to defend these values of human dignity, which was so horribly mangled in that camp."
MEPs then stood for a minute's silence in memory of all the victims.
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