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when is international holocaust remembrance day

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed every year on 27 January.

Quick Scoop: Date & Meaning

  • Fixed date each year: 27 January, internationally.
  • It marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in 1945.
  • The United Nations General Assembly formally designated 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in a 2005 resolution.

Why this specific day?

Auschwitz-Birkenau became a symbol of the Nazi plan to annihilate Europe’s Jews and other targeted groups, where over one million people were murdered in that camp complex alone. Choosing the liberation date as the memorial day underlines both the reality of industrialized mass murder and the moment when its full scale began to be exposed to the world.

How it is marked today

  • Ceremonies at the United Nations and in national parliaments, museums, and memorial sites around the world.
  • Reading the names of victims, lighting candles, and educational programs about the Holocaust and the dangers of antisemitism and other forms of hatred.
  • Public campaigns and online conversations using tags like #HolocaustRemembranceDay to encourage remembrance and combat denial and distortion.

At its core, the day is a global insistence that the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of other victims must never be forgotten, and that remembering is a step toward preventing future atrocities.

TL;DR: International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on 27 January every year, chosen to coincide with the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and established by the UN in 2005.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.