Jan. 26 (UPI) — President Joe Biden condemned the global rise of anti-Semitism Friday in a statement ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Saturday, Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Biden noted the backdrop of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, followed by an “alarming” rise of anti-Semitism around the globe as cause to remember “one of the darkest chapters in human history.”
“This year, the charge to remember the Holocaust, the evil of the Nazis, and the scourge of anti-Semitism is more pressing than ever,” Biden said in reference to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 Israeli citizens were killed and hundreds more were taken hostage.
In the statement, the president called it “the worst atrocity committed against the Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust.”
“We cannot remember all that Jewish survivors of the Holocaust experienced and then stand silently by when Jews are attacked and targeted again today,” he said.
Biden said his administration is committed to combatting anti-Semitism and that it is Americans’ “shared moral responsibility to stand up to anti-Semitism and hate-fueled violence.”
Pope Francis on Wednesday used his weekly general audience at the Vatican to speak in remembrance of the Holocaust and call for an end to the wars in Israel and Ukraine.
The pope called war a “denial of humanity,” and called for people to pray for peace and for “relief for exhausted populations.”
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other commemoration sites observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day by reading the names of the victims and lighting candles.
This year, the museum released a special episode of its Stay Connected Live virtual series, featuring Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman. The video is available on the museum’s Youtube page.