Öffentlicher Brief an die EU-Kommission: Zum Gedenken an den Holocaust

21. März 2023
|In Allgemein
|By Ingo

1st of February 2023

Dear President Von der Leyen, 

Dear Commissioner Schinas,

Dear Commissioner Gabriel,

Every year, on or around the 27th of January, we Members of the European Parliament, commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day to honour the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism, targeted due to their ethnicity, disability, race, sexual orientation or beliefs.

The designation of January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a date marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, is stablished by the UN General Assembly resolution 60/7. Such resolution also supports the development of educational programs to remember the Holocaust and to prevent further genocide, and to actively preserve sites that the Nazis used for the infamous „Final Solution”.

Indeed, we believe the best way to honour the victims of the Holocaust is to ensure that such a horror never happens again. All Europeans and, in particular, future generations, must be fully aware of the despicable acts and crimes, as well as the socio-political conditions that enabled them. 

As President Metsola said in her International Holocaust Remembrance Day speech on 26/01/2023, “it is our responsibility to remember and to pass-down testimonies to future generations. To educate.” She added during the inauguration of the Holocaust Memorial on the same day, “Nothing compares to the experience of visiting Auschwitz”. Indeed, we believe that nothing can substitute a visit to a death and concentration camps, where the painful memory of the Holocaust becomes tangible. This is why we propose the development of a dedicated EU action to ensure that all European youth have the opportunity to visit one of these sites. 

While such educational visits are common in some countries, such as Germany or Austria, not all EU countries do so. Yet, the experience of the Holocaust is European in nature. For example, more than 75,000 Jews living in France, at least 100,000 Jews from the Netherlands, 40,000 Jews from Salonika, in northern Greece, 8,000 Jews from northern Italy, 7,000 Croat Jews, and well above 1.1 million Jews from Central Europe were deported to death and concentration camps. Also, many others Europeans, for example, around 9,328 Spaniards were deported to the camps. It is estimated that as many as 23,000 Roma and Sinti were deported to Auschwitz, that over 20,000 of them were murdered there. This is a story of European victims and executioners, thus a European story, one that all Europeans must know.

Youth mobility is one of the greatest and most cherished achievements of the European Union. Building on its expertise, and on the basis of our shared European values, we are convinced that an EU action for secondary schools, enabling students to visit at least one Nazi or Nazi-allied death and concentration camp in Europe during their schooling years, should become a staple of EU action.

With Kind regards, 

  1. Hannes Heide, MEP S&D, Austria
  2. Domenec Ruiz Devesa, MEP S&D, Spain
  3. Othmar Karas, First Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP EPP, Austria
  4. Evelyn Regner, Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP S&D, Austria
  5. Marc Angel, Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP S&D, Luxembourg
  6. Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP The Left, Greece
  7. Michaela Sojdrova, MEP EPP, Czech Republik
  8. Massimiliano Smeriglio, MEP S&D, Italy 
  9. Guy Verhofstadt, MEP Renew, Belgium
  10. Mikuláš Peksa, MEP Greens/EFA, Czech Republic
  11. Martina Michels, MEP The Left, Germany
  12. Fabio Massimo Castaldo, MEP Non-attached, Italy
  13. Peter Pollák, MEP EPP, Slovakia
  14. Petra Kammerevert, MEP S&D, Germany
  15. Samira Rafaela, MEP Renew
  16. Ernest Urtasun, MEP Greens/EFA, Spain
  17. Helmut Scholz, MEP The Left, Germany
  18. Emmanouíl Frágkos, MEP ECR, Greece
  19. Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, MEP EPP, Greece
  20.  Andreas Schieder, MEP S&D, Austria
  21. Ilana Cicurel, MEP Renew, France
  22. Jordi Solé, MEP Greens/EFA, Spain
  23. Petros Kokkalis, MEP The Left, Greece
  24. Bert-Jan Ruissen, MEP ECR, Netherlands
  25. Martin Buschmann, MEP Non-attached, Germany
  26.  Angelika Winzig, MEP EPP, Austria
  27. Róbert Hajšel, MEP S&D, Slovakia
  28. Charles Goerens, MEP Renew, France
  29. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, MEP Greens/EFA, Germany
  30. Cornelia Ernst, MEP The Left, Germany
  31. Márton Gyöngyösi, MEP Non-attached, Hungary
  32. Cristian Terheș, MEP ECR, Romania
  33. Antonio López-Istúriz White, MEP EPP, Spain
  34. Attila Ara-Kovács, MEP S&D, Hungary
  35. Petras Auštrevičius, MEP Renew, Lithuania
  36. François Alfonsi, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  37. Tatjana Ždanoka, MEP Non-attached, Latvia
  38. Lukas Mandl, MEP EPP, Austria
  39. Dietmar Köster, MEP S&D, Germany
  40. Laurence Farreng, MEP Renew, France
  41. Benoît Biteau, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  42. Benoît Lutgen, MEP EPP, Belgium
  43. Jonás Fernández, MEP S&D, Spain
  44. Izaskun Bilbao, MEP Renew, Spain
  45. Dennis Radtke, MEP EPP, Germany
  46. Günther Sidl, MEP S&D, Austria
  47. Bart Groothuis, MEP Renew, Netherlands
  48. Damien Carême, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  49. Simone Schmiedtbauer, MEP EPP, Austria 
  50. Milan Brglez, MEP S&D, Slovenia
  51. Olivier Chastel, MEP Renew, Belgium
  52. David Cormand, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  53. Radosław Sikorski, MEP EPP, Poland
  54. Thijs Reuten, MEP S&D, Netherlands
  55. Dacian Cioloș, MEP Renew, Romania
  56. Karima Delli, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  57. Christian Sagartz, MEP EPP, Austria
  58. Pedro Silva Pereira, MEP S&D, Portugal
  59. Javier Nart, MEP Renew, Spain
  60.  Claude Gruffat, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  61. Isabel Santos, MEP S&D, Portugal
  62. Yannick Jadot, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  63. José Ramón Bauzá Díaz, MEP Renew, Spain
  64. Cyrus Engerer, MEP S&D, Malta
  65. Michèle Rivasi, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  66. César Luena, MEP S&D, Spain
  67. Katalin Cseh, MEP Renew, Hungary
  68. Caroline Roose, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  69. Isabel Carvalhais, MEP S&D, Portugal
  70. Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  71. Margarida Marques, MEP S&D, Portugal
  72. Mounir Satouri, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  73. Carmen Avram, MEP S&D, Romania
  74. Marie Toussaint, MEP Greens/EFA, France
  75. Udo Bullmann, MEP S&D, Germany
  76. Ana Miranda, MEP Greens/EFA, Spain
  77. Jens Geier, MEP S&D, Germany
  78. Saskia Bricmont, MEP Greens/EFA, Belgium
  79. Matjaž Nemec, MEP S&D Slovenia
  80. Francisco Guerreiro, MEP Greens/EFA, Portugal
  81. Predrag Fred Matić, MEP S&D, Croatia
  82. Tilly Metz, MEP Greens/EFA, Luxembourg
  83. Monika Beňová, MEP S&D, Slovakia
  84. Daniel Freund, MEP Greens / EFA, Germany
  85. Patrizia Toia, MEP S&D, Italy
  86. Aurore Lalucq, MEP S&D, France
  87. Sylvie Guillaume, MEP S&D, France
  88. Ibán Garcia del Blanco, MEP S&D, Spain
  89. Sara Cerdas, MEP S&D, Portugal
  90. Juan Fernando López Aguilar MEP S&D, Spain
  91. Raphaël Glucksmann, MEP S&D, France
  92. Cristina Maestre, MEP S&D, Spain
  93. Estrella Durá MEP S&D, Spain
  94. Attila Ara-Kovács, MEP S&D, Hungary
  95. Csaba Molnár, MEP S&D, Hungary
  96. Sándor Rónai MEP S&D, Hungary
  97. Klára Dobrev MEP S&D, Hungary
  98. Nicolás González Casares MEP S&D, Spain
  99. Iban García del Blanco MEP S&D, Spain
  100. Clara Aguilera, MEP S&D, Spain
  101. Pietro Bartolo, MEP S&D, Italy
  102. Adriana Maldonado, MEP S&D, Spain
  103. Alicia Homs, MEP S&D, Spain
  104. Javi López, MEP S&D, Spain
  105. Marcos Ros Sempere, MEP S&D, Spain
  106. Tomasz Frankowski, MEP EPP, Poland
  107. Theresa Bielowski, MEP S&D, Austria
  108. Matthias Ecke, MEP S&D, Germany
  109. Franc Bogovič, MEP EPP, Slovenia
  110. Monika Vana, MEP Greens, Austria
  111. Sarah Wiener, MEP Greens, Austria
  112. Thomas Waitz, MEP Greens, Austria