24/01/2025 Session
A ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp will be held on Wednesday 29 January from 12:00 to 13:00 in the Chamber of the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg, as part of the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). On this occasion, Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau – President of the Yad Vashem Memorial, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, and the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald camp – will give a speech.
The ceremony, opened by PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos, will also include a statement by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, and short interventions by the leaders of the political groups, a representative of the Roma community, and a representative of the LGBTIQ+ community. It will also include a question-and-answer session with a group of children.
The event, broadcast live on this link, will be preceded by a plenary debate on “Multiperspectivity in remembrance and history education for democratic citizenship”.
This ceremony will be followed by a moment of recollection, during which wreaths in tribute to the victims of the Holocaust will be laid in front of the commemorative stele on the forecourt of the Palais de l'Europe, and a minute of silence observed.
The exhibition “Between life and death” on the subject of the Holocaust and sponsored by the Permanent Representation of Poland to the Council of Europe and the PACE Committee on Culture will be inaugurated in the foyer of the Chamber on Tuesday 28 January at 13:00.