Spain United in Remembering the Holocaust and Fighting Racial Discrimination
Representatives of Spain’s four largest religions and numerous civil institutions signed a pledge to protect human dignity on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Icíar Palacios, Musealia
However, the seeds of the hate, racism and discrimination that made such a place possible survived this atrocity. They continue to be perpetuated to this day in new and dangerous ways.
It is precisely this intolerance that the Pact for Coexistence seeks to address. The pact is backed by various associations, universities, NGOs and faiths in Spain. It was signed on 21 March during their visit to the exhibition ‘Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away’ in the Canal Art Centre in Madrid.
Promoting diversity as the best antidote to intolerance and exclusion
The pact was unprecedented. Never before in Spain have representatives of the Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Evangelical faiths come together to publicly sign a similar agreement and declare their commitment to understanding and working together.
The ceremony was held at the exhibition ‘Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away’ produced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum and Musealia. The exhibition is currently on display at the Canal Art Exhibition Centre in Madrid, Spain.
On the morning of 27 January 1945, the Soviet troops of the Red Army entered Auschwitz. Before their astonished eyes stood the most horrific expression of hatred in humanity’s recent history.
The Germans had gone to great lengths to cover up their crimes. The crematorium furnaces had also been out of service for ten days. However, the stench of the murder of 1,100,000 people hung heavy in the air. Traces of the lives of hundreds of thousands of victims littered the ground. Just 7,000 survivors remained. The emaciated men, women and children, reduced to nothing more than skin and bones, waited anxiously for freedom.
The camp’s liberation marked the end of Nazi Germany’s largest death factory as Europe and the rest of the world began to recover their senses. However, the seeds of the hate, racism and discrimination that made such a place possible survived this atrocity. They continue to be perpetuated to this day in new and dangerous ways.