Premier David Eby has issued the following statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

“Today, people in B.C. join with those all over the world who are remembering the six million Jewish lives lost during the Holocaust, along with millions of others who were targeted because of their ethnicity, sexual identity, disability or political opposition to the Nazis.

“Behind those shocking numbers are the stories of real people whose futures were cut short by Hitler’s genocidal regime. Families lost children, parents and grandparents. The world lost a generation of teachers, doctors and entrepreneurs. And we all lost life-saving scientific discoveries and brilliant works of art that the victims of the Shoah would have made. 

“This year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day comes in the shadow of the deadliest act of violence against Jewish people since the Shoah. Almost four months ago, the world watched in horror as Hamas terrorists entered Israeli towns, kidnapping hundreds of hostages at gunpoint and slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people.

“As we morn those we lost, we also pay tribute to those who survived the Holocaust against all odds.

“People like Marie Doduck, who was just five years old when Nazi soldiers invaded her hometown of Brussels. She was forced to live in hiding for years before being sent to Canada to start a new life. She now lives in Vancouver and has just released a memoir about surviving the Holocaust, A Childhood Unspoken.

“People like Dr. Robert Krell, who helped found the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre at the Jewish Community Centre in Vancouver and was a child survivor of the Shoah in Europe. Dr. Krell pursued a distinguished career in psychiatry that has focused on the treatment of people who have survived massive trauma.

“And people like the late former UBC professor Rudolf Vrba, who escaped the Auschwitz concentration camp. He co-authored a report blowing the whistle on atrocities at Auschwitz, which led to the end of mass deportation of Jewish people from Hungary. At least 110,000 lives were saved.

“As time marches on, sadly we lose more and more of these Holocaust survivors. But we must never lose their stories. It is through these stories that we can understand and empathize with the unfathomable loss of six million Jewish lives.

“That’s why our government has committed to working with the Jewish community to make Holocaust education mandatory for all high school students in British Columbia. Combatting the unacceptable rise in antisemitism that we have seen over the past few months begins with learning from the darkest parts of our history, so the same horrors are never repeated. We owe that to our children and their children.

“Together, let’s recommit to ‘Never Again’ by making sure we never forget.”