Parliament yesterday commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) 2015 – marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in 1945 – and held a minute’s silence as a sign of respect for those 11 million people who ended up victims of these atrocities.

The Israeli Ambassador to Malta Oren David was present in the chamber.

Foreign Minister George Vella said the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps was very significant. However, many young people did not even know about these events in which millions died after being subjected to severe psychological abuse.

It was thanks to a concerted effort that the remaining victims had been liberated, and it was through them that the world found out what had happened.

Many young people do not even know about these events

It would be a shame, Dr Vella said, if this aspect of history was not covered in schools. This was not just about what was done to the Jews but the guilt of humanity which, if the same circumstances were to arise, could easily lead to a repetition. The safeguarding of rights and liberties was essential to prevent anyone from acquiring the kind of political power which led to dictatorship.

The horror of the consequences of such absolute power should never be forgotten. He warned there was great risk of adopting racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic attitudes in which there was contempt for any other race.

Dr Vella said he was one of the first Maltese people to visit Auschwitz in 1964 and the memory of it had never left him. He had experienced similar unforgettable emotions at the museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

However, he asked, had we learned anything from all this? Were we really terrified of repeating these mistakes?

Dr Vella said he had his doubts, as all over the world, atrocities were still taking place. Cruelty and ethnic cleansing still existed in Gaza and Rwanda. Unfortunately, given half a chance, man would do it all over again.

He said that if we believed in democracy, the rule of law and respect for institutions, the minute we saw a country or population which was being treated inhumanely, we needed to step in and invoke international law. If necessary infrastructures needed to be strengthened in order to remain strong.

Foreign Affairs Shadow Minister Tonio Fenech said that the Opposition joined the government and the President in paying tribute to the memory of the millions who had died in the Holocaust. He also wanted to commemorate the five million people of other nationalities, as well as the gypsies, homosexuals and people with disability, who were all exterminated because they were perceived as a threat to the pure Aryan race.

The fear of others who were different was a terrible disease which the world still suffered from. There were people who continued to be treated inhumanely and their rights denied purely on the basis of race and ethnicity.

The sentiment which led to the horror of the Holocaust still existed and there were still leaders who fanned the flames of xenophobia, he said, referring to the genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine, and that perpetrated by Boko Haram and the Islamic State.

The Holocaust that ended 70 years ago was in reality still with us. Man still feared those of different ideology, race or sexual orientation. Seventy years later, a bomb to kill journalists was still considered a solution, and torture was still being used to control people’s minds.

Mr Fenech said the 80 immigrants who had just disembarked were similar to the photos one saw of Jews liberated from Auschwitz. People were still losing their homes and their dignity. He said one had to be careful not to sow the seeds of fear and racism, and anti-Semitism in one’s own people, because this was a monster which if fed, would end up turning on us instead. Politicians should place democracy and human rights at the forefront of their policies and emphasise that the world could live together.

Acting Speaker Ċensu Galea asked the Clerk of the House to convey the House’s sentiments to the Israeli Embassy and asked members to join him in a minute’s silence.

Today, European heads of state and former inmates will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by the Red Army. The Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp was created by the Nazi Germany during the Second World War and claimed the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people.