“In Poland, in many places, from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Majdanek, Bełżec, Sobibór, we commemorate the victims of that tragedy that Germans did to the world at that time. It is all in order not to stop telling the world what hatred between people, racial hatred, what Nazism causes”, said Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek at the Lublin commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The head of the ministry of education and science drew attention to the need to nurture historical memory, which should teach and warn against hatred. 

“Today, we are dealing with the genocide against the Ukrainian people perpetrated by the Russians. So, we must not stop our efforts and continue to tell people: never again war, never again hatred between people, never again criminal totalitarian regimes” the minister added. 

During the ceremony, Minister Czarnek also announced talks with Israeli authorities about renewing contacts between Polish and Israeli youth. 

“We want to show Poland in the light in which it should be shown. With its beautiful culture, history and centuries of coexistence between these nations, but we also want to show Polish and Israeli youth what totalitarianisms such as German Nazism lead to”, he added. 

At Primary School No. 24 in Lublin, Minister Przemysław Czarnek also took part in the opening of an elementary exhibition ‘The Holocaust of European Jews’. The exhibition provides basic information about the extermination of the Jewish population in Europe, explains what Nazi Germany’s policies were, what life was like in the ghettos, and presents unique photographs from the collections of the IPN Archive, the State Archive in Łódź, and the Bundesarchiv.

Adrian Andrzejewski