Secretary-General's remarks to the press following a meeting with Auschwitz survivors and young people to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day

SG: I think the important message here is that the General Assembly decided that we should commemorate the anniversary of the closure of the Holocaust. I think the message behind it is for us to remember what happened, not only remember what happened but the fate of the victims of the Holocaust should be a warning to all of us that we live in a world where as one, the participants heard today, you have modernism mixed with barbarism and we should be vigilant in trying to ensure that what happened is never repeated and that the young people should take this message.

We often today turn to the international community and say what is the international community doing. When we refer to the international community, we're referring to governments and states. But one of the messages that came out this morning for the young ones is that individuals also have a responsibility. And the question was, take someone like (Raoul) Wallenberg, how come there were so few Wallenbergs, where were the others? So we all have a responsibility in trying to ensure that we do protect society and each other.

Man has incredible capacity for evil. It should be checked. It should not be left only to governments. And I hope education in the schools will continue. There are bigots today who would deny that the Holocaust occurred, that unique experience of Holocaust occurred. And that should be countered. We see racism, humiliation of the other. And that is how it begins. You start with humiliation, you start with discrimination, you demean the other and before you know it, it has moved onto incredible levels. So I would urge schools to teach tolerance, to remind students in their history books what happened with the Holocaust and we would be doing society a great service.