Music, art and survivor testimonies: UNESCO commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day

"Lasting peace is impossible without a sincere commitment to confronting the most painful episodes of the past. Remembrance of the Holocaust obliges us to address them; at the same time, it also obliges us to respect human rights and an international order built on the fundamental principle that there is dignity in every human life," said UNESCO Director-General Ms Audrey Azoulay as she opened the official ceremony of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. She was joined by Francois Heilbronn, the Vice-President of the Memorial de la Shoah, and by Holocaust survivor Dr Charlotte Knobloch, World Jewish Congress Commissioner for Holocaust Memory and President of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria. 

"I grew up in a world where I had no place," said Ms Knobloch as she delivered her powerful testimony to the audience. Charlotte Knobloch, now 92, witnessed the November pogroms against the Jews in Munich at the age of six and saw hatred quickly unfolding into violence and mass persecution. She survived the Holocaust under a false name, hiding with a family of Christian farmers in the German countryside. Since the end of the Second World War, Ms Knobloch's lifelong mission has been to spread the urgent message of "never again" to as many people as possible. Developing new approaches to reach younger generations with education about the Holocaust is an essential component of this work.

Survivor testimonies were essential for discovering the musical legacy of the Holocaust – songs and melodies that Jewish communities and other victim groups composed and played in ghettos, concentration and labour camps. Italian composer, pianist and conductor Francesco Lotoro spent years researching these musical pieces across all major archives – some of them written on seriously damaged scraps of paper, others lingering only in the memory of those who survived. 

Lotoro's Foundation, "Istituto di Letterature Musicale Concentrazionaria", created a unique collection that counts thousands of such compositions. Nine of them were brought back to life on stage in a moving concert under Maestro’s artistic direction at UNESCO Headquarters during the official commemoration ceremony on 25 January 2024. Lotoro’s orchestra of Italian musicians and singers revived songs in Yiddish, Polish, and Romani, some of them for the first time since the end of the Second World War. Excerpts of the video testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation and the Montreal Holocaust Museum that enabled Lotoro's discoveries were also shown at the concert. 

"There is a saying in Hebrew which means 'with their death, they conquered life', recalled Francesco Lotoro. “Whether or not they survived the camps, these artists are asking us not just to live but to restore the highest meaning to life. If we couldn't save their physical lives, we must now save and also promote, disseminate, and perform their music because it pertains to life, and it is what we must give to future generations."

The official ceremony also included a performance on a violin played at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp and a recital of the Kaddish by opera singer David Serero.

The 2024 commemoration event was organized in partnership with the Foundation "Institute of Concentrationary Music Literature", the USC Shoah Foundation and the Shoah Memorial. 

It was made possible through the generous support of the Permanent Delegations of Belgium, Germany, Italy and Monaco to UNESCO and the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. 

UNESCO also acknowledges the valuable support from the Montreal Holocaust Museum and "We are the tree of life" association.

This year's commemoration also featured the multimedia exhibition "Blue Skies" by Belgian artist Anton Kusters. Kusters spent six years photographing empty skies above Nazi German concentration and extermination camps across Europe – locations where millions were killed, yet little physical evidence remains today. These places of persecution existed from 1933 to 1945 (4432 days) in a highly organized system of imprisonment, forced labour, and murder. 

Kusters’ 1078 blue sky images are accompanied by a 4432-day-long sound installation by artist Ruben Samama. "The Tracking of One Thousand and Seventy-eight Blue Skies", which generates a unique tone for each camp's victims. The continuously looping silent video, "There is Nothing Here", showing Kusters arriving and leaving Nazi sites of persecution, highlights the eerie absence of tangible remains across these locations. 

Through this project, curated by Monica Allende, Kusters invited the audience to explore how we witness and process pain and choose to remember almost 80 years after the end of the Holocaust. The Permanent Delegations of Belgium and Germany to UNESCO that generously supported the exhibition, hosted the opening of the “Blue Skies” project at UNESCO Headquarters on 24 January in the presence of the artist.

The 2024 commemorations also put forward the urgency of preserving the remaining historic sites of the Holocaust for the collective duty of remembrance. On 25 January, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia signed a historic agreement to re-establish a new and permanent exhibition in Block 17 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum during a dedicated ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay will act as custodian of the agreement.

Formerly known as the "Ex-Yugoslav Pavilion", the exhibition space will document the Holocaust across the region. It will be designed by the award-winning architect Daniel Libeskind in partnership with the Herman Family Trust. 

UNESCO, the UN, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the OSCE/ODIHR, the Council of Europe and the European Commission have supported the new round of the joint ongoing digital campaign #ProtectTheFacts against Holocaust denial and distortion. UNESCO also joined the global #WeRemember campaign, organized by the World Jewish Congress (WJC), and participated in TikTok's commemorative initiative.

• International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
• Webcast of the 2024 Commemoration