The horrors of the Holocaust - May this 20th century genocide never again be repeated

For the memory to endure, the International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR) based in Portugal, decided in fulfilment of its mission and in the scope of human rights to pay a just and well-merited universal tribute to all Holocaust victims. The event took place in Portugal at the Holocaust Museum of Oporto, its target audience being hundreds of students from many different schools, together with their teachers.

This initiative was part of a world solidarity cordon for universal peace and a better world for humanity, under the aegis of the International Observatory of Human Rights and involved very country in the world.

To perpetuate the living memory of this tragic event registering the real and most terrifying crimes in the history of humanity, I myself, as President of the OIHR, delivered the title of this tribute, a symbol that will live on for the coming generations, to Holocaust Museum director Michael Rothwell.

An example of this title will also be delivered to all the Holocaust Museums scattered around the world, as well as to the Anti-Defamation League, given its key role on behalf of persecuted minorities, to B’nai B’rith International, the oldest Jewish organisation in defence of human rights, and to other national and international entities.

The International Observatory of Human Rights calls on the world to be aware, so that crimes of this nature are never again repeated. These crimes against humanity represented the terrible mass murder of an incalculable number of human beings (men, women and children). In the case of the Jews, this was made worse by the existence of an industrial and scientific action plan that in an ideal situation would have embraced the whole world, even those territories not yet occupied by the Nazis.

The activity of the extermination units set up to murder the Jews was so inhuman and cruel that many of the men who actually carried out the shooting were affected by severe psychological problems during the “massacre”, whose real dimension was only known later and only then horrified the world.

Given its nature, the International Observatory of Human Rights discriminates against no one based on ethnicity, age, sex, race, place of origin, social or religious provenance, political or ideological convictions. It fights for a better world and hopes that all human beings who defend the dignity of human persons should vehemently repudiate antisemitism, expressed in the hate and prejudices reflected in hostile actions against the Jewish people.