Džaferović attended the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Member of the BiH Presidency Šefik Džaferović today, together with sovereigns and heads of state and government from 50 countries around the world, joined 200 surviving victims of the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp at a commemoration marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of this death camp in Poland.

"It is our human and civilizational obligation to forever remember the victims of the Holocaust, the greatest crime of the last century, and to remember them with special reverence. The crime committed by Hitler's Nazis must forever remain in the collective memory of humankind. At the same time, it is our obligation to decisively oppose ideologies of evil that are ready to eradicate an entire people, as well as those who deny or relativize these crimes. Unfortunately, the suffering of the Jewish people in World War II was clearly not a sufficient warning to some people and policies that similar evils must never happen again. We witnessed this in Bosnia and Herzegovina fifty years later, where genocide was committed against the Bosniak people. Therefore, today, stronger than ever, we are obliged to oppose anti-Semitism, policies of division, the strengthening of right-wing populist movements in Europe and the world, and any other form of extremism," stated the Member of the BiH Presidency Šefik Džaferović on this occasion, the BiH Presidency announced.

The main commemoration on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp was held in front of the "gate of death" of the former camp, where the Polish President Andrzej Duda addressed the attendees with a welcome speech. This was followed by the main address by representatives of the surviving victims, representatives of the organization "Pillars of Memory", and Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum.

After the speeches, an ecumenical prayer was held in memory of the 1.3 million people killed, of whom one million were Jews.

At the end of the main ceremony, candles were lit in front of the plaques of the Memorial Museum and the Main Monument, where the head of the BiH delegation also paid tribute to the numerous victims.

The BiH delegation, led by Member of the Presidency Šefik Džaferović, also included the Ambassador of BiH to the Republic of Poland, Koviljka Špirić, as well as Željko Bakalar, advisor to the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić, and Radovan Kovačević, advisor to the Serb Member of the Presidency of BiH Milorad Dodik.