MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN General Assembly, except Iran, adopts resolution condemning any denial of the Holocaust

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said even 80 years after the Wannsee Conference where the Holocaust was decided, “we will never forget what Germany did to them”.

On the month of Holocaust Remembrance Day, United Nations General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution rejecting and condemning any denial of the Holocaust following on a joint proposal from Israel and Germany.

The resolution was agreed unanimously with only a vote against, from Iran.

The Assembly also called on the media and social networks to take active measures to combat anti Semitism on line

German UN ambassador Antje Leendertse said that “ignoring historical facts only increases the risk that they will be repeated”.

A joint statement from the German ambassador in Israel and the Israeli ambassador in Germany published in New York said “This resolution is meant to be a sign of hope and inspiration for all states and societies that stand up for diversity and tolerance, strive for reconciliation and understand that remembering the Holocaust is essential to prevent such crimes from happening again”

The resolution set out a definition of Holocaust denial that includes attempts to distort the historical facts: Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany; Gross minimization of the number of victims of Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources; Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide.; Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event. ; Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups.

The resolution coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, when Nazi leaders met at a villa on the shores of Berlin's Wannsee lake to discuss the systematic murder of up to 11 million Jews and other ethnic groups in Europe.

A few minutes from one of the 1942 meetings that were rescued and have been preserved to this day, confirm the massive genocide that was already underway at the time.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said even 80 years after the Wannsee Conference it was essential to remember how German diplomats were involved in Nazi crimes.

“Officials from the German Foreign Affairs Ministry who put themselves at the service of crimes and genocide by the Nazi regime are also to blame for their suffering,” she said. “We will never forget what Germany did to them”.

January 27, the day the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated, has long been declared the annual international day of commemoration honoring victims of the Holocaust, also known as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.