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Slovakia commemorates deportations

20.03.2017

From 24-26 March 2017 the Slovak National Museum - Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava will hold a memorial event dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the departure of the first transport to leave Slovakia for the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

The event will be held over three days in Poprad under the auspices of Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Robert Fico. A number of lectures and musical events will be followed by a commemoration on 26 March at the memorial plaque to the victims of the Holocaust at the Poprad Railway Station.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has a strong focus on Holocaust Memorial Days, both as part of the IHRA grant strategy and as a specific internal programme. The IHRA believes that Holocaust remembrance is the responsibility of the whole society and aims to ensure that remembrance activities have the support of political leaders and governmental initiatives. The need for mainstream Holocaust remembrance was recognized by the international community through adopting the Stockholm Declaration in 2000, which states: "We share a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honor those who stood against it. We will encourage appropriate forms of Holocaust remembrance, including an annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance, in our countries."

Slovakia is one of IHRA's 31 Member Countries.

The IHRA united governments and experts to strenghthen and advance Holocaust education, remembrance and research and to uphold the commitments of the 2000 Stockholm Declaration.