International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an international memorial day for the Holocaust tragedy that occurred during World War II. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the deaths of some 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 250,000 people with mental and physical disabilities and 9,000 homosexuals by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. It was designated by resolution 60/7 of the United Nations General Assembly on 1 November 2005, at its 42nd plenary meeting. The resolution came after a special session in January 2005, during which the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust.

On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was released by the Red Army.

This year, the central theme is the diplomats who risked their lives to save thousands of Jews and refugees from the death camps. Diplomats who were later recognized by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations“.

Sources Embaixada de Israel and Wikipedia