President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva published a message on Tuesday (Jan. 27) to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The text, shared on social media, reads: “We must remember the horrors that humanity is capable of committing against its own kind… Authoritarianism, hate speech, and ethnic and religious prejudice were the building blocks of this great tragedy of the 20th century.”

The genocide committed by the Nazis in Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945, claimed the lives of millions of Jews and other groups, including Roma and Poles, as well as homosexuals, people with disabilities, and communists.

In his message, Lula recalled that in 2004, during a meeting with Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress, he signed a petition addressed to the United Nations (UN) to officially establish the date, which was approved the following year. The choice of January 27 refers to the day the atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Germany were revealed, in 1945.

“A day to remember those who lost their lives and to show solidarity with the millions of families destroyed and the suffering of an entire people. It is also a day to defend human rights, peaceful coexistence, and democratic institutions - fundamental elements of the more just world we want to leave for future generations,” said the president.