Holocaust Commemoration

During the 42^nd Plenary Session the United Nations General Assembly designated the date of January 27 as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in its resolution 60/7 of 1 November 2005. The General Assembly urged the nations of the world to observe this day so that such genocide will never happen again.

In addition, some countries have an annual day of commemoration honoring the victims, survivors and rescuers of the Holocaust on dates related to local events that affected their Jewish community.

Date / Country

Commemoration Day

27 January

Albania, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom

*The Council of Ministers marks this day, but it’s not an official event of the state.

UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day

10 March

Bulgaria

Holocaust Remembrance Day and the “Day of the Salvation of the Bulgarian Jews and of the Victims of the Holocaust and of the Crimes against Humanity”

The day of the revocation of the plan to expel the country’s Jewish population, officially designated in 2003.

10-11 March

North Macedonia

The Government has not established an official Memorial Day, but commemorative ceremonies are customarily held on 10 and 11 March.

19 April

Poland

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

27 Nisan (April/May)

Israel, Canada (Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia)

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day), or Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laGvura (the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day).

The date relates both to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which began 13 days earlier, and to the Israeli Independence Day which is eight days later.

8-day period, from the Sunday before Yom Hashoah to the Sunday after Yom Hashoah

United States of America

Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (DRVH)

Established by Congress in 1979 as the period for remembrance programs and ceremonies.

17 April

Hungary

Establishment of the first ghetto in Hungary in Munkács (1944)

22 April

Serbia

Holocaust Remembrance Day
Serbian: Dan sećanja na žrtve holokausta

4 May

The Netherlands

Remembrance of the Dead
Dutch: Dodenherdenking

** There is a separate Auschwitzherdenking (liberation of Auschwitz memorial) every last Sunday of January.

5 May

Austria

Memorial Day against Violence and Racism in Memory on the Victims of National Socialism
German: Gedenktag gegen Gewalt und Rassismus im Gedenken an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus

The day that the concentration camp Mauthausen was liberated in 1945.

4 July

Latvia

Official commemoration event for the Jewish victims of genocide.

The event commemorates the burning of the synagogue on Gogola Street in Riga, which took place in 1941, when victims were locked inside the synagogue.

16 July

France

Anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup
French: Anniversaire de la rafle du Vélodrome d’hiver.

Remembrance marking the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews in Paris on this date in 1942 and their extermination at Auschwitz.

9 September

Slovakia

Holocaust Victims and Racial Hatred Day

23 September

Lithuania

National Memorial Day for the Genocide of the Lithuanian Jews.

The day was instituted to commemorate the victims of the destruction of the Vilnius Ghetto in 1943.

29 September

Ukraine

Commemoration day of the victims of Babi Yar

Attended by national leaders, but not an national/official commemorative event

9 October

Romania

National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust
Romanian: Ziua Naţională de Comemorare a Holocaustului