Discurso del Ministro de Justicia, Mariano Fernández Bermejo. English Version.

Distinguished authorities, ladies and gentlemen

For a third year in succession we gather for the State Remembrance of the Holocaust, that attempt -which failed, but only just- to exterminate Jews totally from Europe. Along with, of course, all groups and individuals associated with them in the Nazis’ demented scheme: gypsies, the physically and mentally disabled, political opponents, ‘others’ in general.

In this Commemoration we want firstly to honour the memory of the millions of victims who died or whose lives were marked for ever and their families destroyed.

Six decades after that apocalyptic Shoah, as the number of living witnesses grows smaller by the day, we also want to convey to the young people of today the memory of that human tragedy, which was made possible by the actions of a few, the complicity of many and the failure to act by almost everyone in Europe: intimated governments, citizens in fear, incredulous religious leaders, contaminated intellectuals, discredited politicians.

At the same time, we also want the Commemoration to convey a message of hope.

Hope based on the fact that, in spite of the outbreaks of racist attitudes and even crimes that can and do occur in many parts of Europe, racism and anti-Semitism are firmly repudiated intellectually and morally, as well as politically.

Nonetheless, we should be on our guard at all times, in political life as well as daily life, and react to any hint of intolerance, discrimination or disregard for the values of equal rights that underpin our democratic coexistence.

We also have a duty to pass on the memory of the crimes against humanity that were committed because they could be committed. At the same time, a duty to reinforce the hope that they will never be committed again in future.