similar agreement and declare their commitment to understanding and working together. Representatives of associations, universities, NGOs and other civil society organisations also participated in the ceremony. They joined the other bodies participating in the Pact for Coexistence, including the Council of Victims of Hate Crimes and Discrimination. It was a moment when once opposing sectors of society came together to remind us of the duty we all have to live together peacefully and challenge messages that promote hate and conflict.
Under the slogan ‘Stop hate, protect coexistence’, the manifesto states that only a diverse and cohesive society can prevent atrocities such as those committed at Auschwitz. The camp’s legacy represents a stark warning regarding the “different forms of commonplace intolerance and assaults on dignity” that remain embedded in our modern world.
The ceremony affirmed the signatories’ commitment to work together to promote a plural society whose members live together with mutual respect. The parties will also work together to stamp out hate and promote the inclusion of all minorities.
A reading from the manifesto took place inside the fragment of the barracks of Auschwitz III-Monowitz on display at the exhibition. Those present were invited to visit the memory of the Holocaust and the Nazi genocide. They were reminded “of the depths of darkness to which we are capable of sinking when all moral and ethical principles are abandoned and discrimination is stoked into irrational hatred towards others who are ‘different’.”
In the same setting, Auschwitz survivor Noah Klieger (born in Strasbourg in 1926) recently recounted his experience of the Holocaust. In a frail voice, Klieger continued to search for the reason behind such hatred. Around 250,000 people from Spain have visited these same wooden walls. In doing so, they have recalled the horror of the past in the present and paid homage to the millions of victims of the Holocaust, keeping their memory and legacy alive.
Kenia Carbajal, daughter of Lucrecia Pérez, the first hate crime victim in democratic Spain, said: “Today, Auschwitz reflects all victims of violence, human rights violations and hate crimes, whatever their form.”