Tsai attends Holocaust remembrance event

There are still people who continue to suffer just because they are of different ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation, the president said

The Israeli and German representatives to Taiwan yesterday warned of rising anti-Semitism around the globe as both nations remembered victims and survivors of the Holocaust during an annual memorial event in Taipei attended by President Tsai Ingwen (蔡英文).

Speaking during her address at the event at the Taipei Guest House, Israeli Representative Maya Yaron said the memorial was being held at “a time of great sorrow and tension, when anti-Semitism and violence are evident in so many places in our world.”

Last year had the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents around the world for many years, not only on social media platforms, but also in terms of direct physical assaults, Yaron said.

She mentioned the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis, with 139 still being held hostage as of yesterday.

“The atrocities of Oct. 7 brought back the darkest memories that my own grandparents — similar to all of Israel’s grandparents — experienced during the Holocaust,” she said at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day event.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds people of the commitment to promote respect, understanding, tolerance and knowledge, she said.

“It is in our hands to build bridges and not deepen divisions,” the Israeli representative said.

German Representative Jorg Polster said the Holocaust is a “horror without comparison in its atrocity and brutality.”

“On the basis of a racist and anti-Semitic ideology, 6 million Jewish people perished by the hands of Nazi Germany,” Polster said.

It is important that mankind always honor the victims and to make sure nobody forgets what happened back then, he said.

“We have to keep the memory alive to what happened then in order to make sure that we make the right choice today and in future,” he said.

Polster said that Germany has witnessed “polarization leading to especially accentuated, if not extreme opinions” over the past few years.

“As one of the consequences, almost 80 years after the end of World War II, anti-Semitism is on the rise again,” he said.

Despite that alarming development, he said there is still hope as governments and civil society have jointly demonstrated that they are against extremism.

“The message, loud and clear, is: ‘Never again,’ and nobody in his right mind could possibly think otherwise,” Polster said.

Tsai said each year people come together for the memorial event “to remember those who perished in the Holocaust, as well as those who endured unimaginable suffering because of this tragedy.”

“We must pledge to never forget the spirit and history of human dignity being cast aside for political ideology,” Tsai said, adding that the fight against “discrimination and bigotry” needs to continue.

“We must also be reminded that there are still countless people who continue to suffer authoritarianism and dictatorship just because they are of different ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, religious or political ideology,” she said.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day event was cohosted by the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and the German Institute Taipei together with the government-funded Taiwan Foundation for Democracy to raise public awareness of the Holocaust.

Taiwan has since 2016 observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the UN in 2005, to remember the victims of the genocide committed by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945.

The UN chose Jan. 27 as the remembrance date, as that was when the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland was liberated by the Russian army in 1945.