Centre for Civic Education (CCE), on the occasion of 27 January – the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, recalls one of the most brutal crimes in the history of humanity and the enduring obligation to oppose all forms of hatred, discrimination, and intolerance. The Holocaust is not merely a historical fact, but a powerful warning of the devastating consequences of ideologies based on exclusion, dehumanisation, and violence, as well as a reminder of our responsibility to recognise, condemn, and prevent similar patterns which, regrettably, continue to emerge in contemporary societies.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and former prisoner of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, warned that the denial of crimes constitutes a second killing of the victim. Regrettably, we continue to witness attempts to rehabilitate perpetrators and ideologically driven historical revisionism, which distance societies from the values they must consistently uphold – namely, a culture of remembrance and the unequivocal condemnation of crimes and perpetrators.
The lessons of history have not been fully learned. Contemporary wars and conflicts around the world continue to produce new mass suffering, forced displacement, and destruction, while human suffering is often relativised, justified, or instrumentalised through political narratives and propaganda. This is precisely why education about the Holocaust and other crimes, as well as the cultivation of a culture of remembrance, is of crucial importance – not only for preserving the memory of the past, but also for the timely recognition of ideologies and policies that lead to the destabilisation of societies, wars, and mass violations of human rights.
All those active in the public sphere bear a particular responsibility. The relativisation of crimes, hate speech, and the normalisation of violence, which we face today in in Montenegrin societ, directly undermine efforts to build peace, trust, and tolerance, leaving space for the gravest mistakes of the past to be repeated.
Commemorating the millions of victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War also entails paying tribute to approximately 20,000 people from the former Yugoslavia who were deported to the Auschwitz camp, including individuals from Montenegro, fewer than one hundred of whom survived. In this context, the Agreement on Financing the Re-establishment of the Joint Permanent Exhibition in Block 17 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, signed by the countries of the region, is of exceptional importance. After more than a decade of work, this agreement enables the finalisation of activities related to the restoration of the Yugoslav Pavilion during 2026, representing an important contribution to strengthening the culture of remembrance and regional responsibility.
In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as it was on that date in 1945 that the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated. More than 1,300,000 people from across Europe, primarily Jews, were deported to the camp, and more than 1,100,000 were murdered. Since 1947, Auschwitz-Birkenau has functioned as a memorial museum, visited annually by more than two million people. The resolution calls on UN Member States to preserve the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and to develop educational programmes about its history, as an expression of determination to prevent the recurrence of genocide in the future.