Senator Marc Gold, the new Government Representative in the Senate, attended an event in Ottawa on Friday in commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

Entitled Remembering the Holocaust, Conveying its Lessons, Senator Gold helped host the event along with Senator Donna Dasko and Jack Jedwab of the Association for Canadian Studies.

Read Senator Gold’s statement below.

“We are here today to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Aushwitz and the Holocaust must be understood in their particularity, as do all the genocides that have marked our time.

But beyond these unique particularities, Auschwitz and the Holocaust hold universal lessons for humanity, tragically not yet learned.

Your presence here today – this gathering – is our commitment to bear witness to the past and to work to prevent these tragedies from occurring, now and forever.

In the Jewish tradition, we are taught that although we are not obliged to finish the work, we are not permitted to refuse to take it up.

Thank you for joining us in this most important work.”