A Holocaust memorial day or Holocaust remembrance day is an annual observance to commemorate the victims of

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, the

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

of six million Jews and of millions of other Holocaust victims by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and its allies. Many countries, primarily in Europe, have designated national dates of commemoration. In 2005, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

instituted an international observance,

International Holocaust Remembrance Day The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is an list of minor secular observances#January, international memorial day on 27 January that memorialization, commemorates Holoca ...

. Many observances fall on 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, while other countries selected separate dates, often to mark anniversaries of national events during the Holocaust. Holocaust remembrance days often include efforts to combat hatred and

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. In February 2025,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

announced that Holocaust Remembrance Days would no longer be highlighted by default on Google Calendar, arguing that it was no longer "scalable or sustainable" to continue adding the growing number of national and international "cultural moments" manually to its calendars.

List of observances

, twelve countries observed January 27, the day of the liberation of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

, including Germany, Britain, Italy and Scandinavian countries. In 2003 France designated this date as the day of remembrance of genocides and prevention of crimes against humanity. In 2004 Israel designated this date as a mark of the struggle against

. , eleven countries in Europe had chosen dates related to local histories.

Commemorations and memorials

* In January 2020, a ceremony was held at Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of its liberation on January 27, 1945. this included speeches by numerous officials and Jewish communal leaders. Large number of Holocaust survivors attended this ceremony. In the United Kingdom, government officials, religious leaders and community leaders gathered in London to commemorate this anniversary. On the same date, German police reported they were investigating the sales of a brand of beer with Nazi-style symbols on its labeling. * In 2021 a number of Jewish organizations in the United Kingdom incorporated the situation in Xinjiang into their Holocaust Memorial Day remembrances and commemorations.

List of observances

Commemorations and memorials

See also

References

Further reading