UN chief honors Holocaust victims at General Assembly remembrance

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres honors the victims of the Holocaust in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“They were mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren, six million Jews murdered just because they were Jewish. We also grieve the Roma, Sinti, people with disabilities,” he says.

“Remembrance is more than honoring the past. It is a duty and a promise to defend dignity, to protect the vulnerable,” Guterres says. “The Holocaust, after all, is not only history, it is a warning, a warning that hatred, once unleashed, can consume everything.”

“Today, that warning feels more urgent than ever. Antisemitism around the world is raging, Jewish communities live in fear, synagogues attacked, families shattered, violent antisemitic hatred racing across cyberspace. We are haunted by the horrific terror attack of October 7, which I once again categorically condemn,” he says.

Guterres repeatedly condemns antisemitism, but takes a universalist message from the Nazi genocide. He does not mention Israel.

“When those with power fail to act, evil goes unpunished… When the past is distorted, denied and weaponized, hatred and prejudice fester. When words become weapons, lies, conspiracies, the casual joke and the coded slur can grow until the unthinkable becomes policy and violence,” he says.

“I’ve always understood the clear link between the horrors of the Holocaust and the spirit of multilateralism, justice and rights that founded our organization,” he says. “Let us honor the memory of the victims, of the Holocaust, by recommitting to justice, dignity, compassion.”