The Secretary-General's message on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, was delivered by the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Yangon’s Director, Ashok Nigam. The National Information Officer (NIO) of UNIC Yangon, Aye Win, spoke to an audience of around 600 academics and students. 

Speaking in the Myanmar language, the NIO told the audience that he came from a family of two races and religions.  Having had the privilege of learning from the teachings of two religions and from the culture of two races, he mentioned that he could not accept that one religioin or race was superior or better than the other. 

The speech was well received by the audience, which included the Deputy Minister for Education, U Ba Shwe, who expressed his appreciation after the speech.  The event also screened the documentary "The Last Flight of Petr Ginz" and featured a display of prize winning posters from an international poster competition.

In an interview on Myanmar International Television during the event, NIO Aye Win, expressed his thanks to the Ministry of Education for its promotion of Holocaust education.

Dignitaries, young people, musicians and staff members formed a solemn audience for Geneva’s thought-provoking ceremony marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, on Tuesday 31 January, in the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations.

The event, which was addressed by the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and diplomatic representatives from Israel, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland, was a chance to reflect on the lessons of the past as a word to the wise for the future.

Heartfelt testimony of those dark days came from Agnes Hirschi, the daughter of Carl Lutz, the former Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, who put his life on the line more than once to save thousands of Hungarian Jews through precariously issued identification documents. She spoke of night time calls to avert mass killings, sheltering in basements with no light or provisions and the thousands of souls sheltering in Budapest’s Glass House, then a Swiss administrative facility.

Two musical interludes, starring the talented family of singer Sarah Pagin, pianist Aimo Pagin and the violinist Silvia Marcovici, gave the audience a chance to reflect on what they had just heard. Haunting excerpts from “West Side Story”, “Les enfants du Ghetto” and “Dremlen Feygl”, added a new dimension to the quiet commemoration. Footage from “Schindler’s List”, in particular, left a lasting impressing with the audience. 

On 1 February, the UN Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, organized a special event where students from local schools aged 13 to 15 were invited to view “The Last Flight of Petr Ginz,” the story of a young Czech Jew who kept a beautifully illustrated diary of life in 1941-42, managed to publish a regular magazine in the Terezin work camp and was sadly lost to Auschwitz before liberation. The 30 young visitors also had a chance to hear from Agnes Hirschi in a more informal setting and visit an exhibition on the work of Carl Lutz.

The UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Port of Spain, launched a month long photo and video exhibition on the Holocaust on 27 January, with a small ceremony at the Centre's conference room. The event featured a reading from the "Diary of Anne Frank" by a 12 year old student, a presentation from Mr. Hans Stetcher, a Holocaust survivor now living in Trinidad and the screening of the trailer "The Last Flight of Petr Ginz". 

Mr. Stetcher, spoke about his life as a young man growing up in Austria. When the Nazi led army invaded the country, it spread antisemitism, discrimination and persecution.  He recalled the difficulties Jews faced when attempting to leave Austria, fearing for their lives, because of the restrictive immigration policies of Western countries. His family fled to the Island of Trinidad in the Caribbean, shortly before the genocide began.

The UNIC exhibition also featured a collection of 16 winning posters from a global competition that encouraged children to create their image of the Holocaust entitled "The Holocaust - Keeping the Memory Alive".

The full story and more pictures are available at http://portospain.unic.org/

The UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Bucharest in partnership with Bucharest “Dante Alighieri” High school, marked on 27 January, the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The documentary, “The Last Flight of Petr Ginz”, which tells the story of Petr Ginz, a Czechoslovak boy killed in Auschwitz, was screened for the students aged between 14 to 17 years.

In today’s world, where people pay more attention to their economic and financial issues than to human rights and social responsibility, the event was a chance to underline that human beings are entitled to respect no matter their racial, ethnic or religious affiliations and that the elimination of all kinds of discrimination and violence is crucial.

After the screening, the students, UNIC staff and interns debated over issues such as human rights, communism and the Holocaust in Romania, highlighting the need for explaining the Holocaust’s history, context and facts to the students. For most of the students coming to the screening, the film was an introduction to a subject they had not been aware off and was thus a chance for them to learn and understand that period in the world’s history, its impact on society and the need to avoid repeating the same mistakes.