International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Statement by Ambassador Daniel B. Smith, January 26, 2013

The American Embassy in Athens joins Greece and other countries throughout the world in marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We pause to honor the memory of six million Jews and millions of others who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis.
 
As President Barack Obama stated at a Holocaust memorial last spring, “We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen – because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts, and because so many others stood silent. We must tell our children. But more than that, we must teach them. Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Awareness without action changes nothing. In this sense, ‘never again’ is a challenge to us all – to pause and to look within.”
 
By remembering and honoring the victims of this atrocity, we all take a stand to ensure that such unimaginable evil is not repeated.