In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD).

International Holocaust Remembrance Day — Global Education and Recognition:

• The date was chosen because it marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Army, in order to commemorate the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazi Regime and its collaborators, as well as the millions of other victims, including an estimated 500,000 Roma.
• According to UN Resolution 60/7, IHRD functions as a way of both “Honouring the courage and dedication shown by the soldiers who liberated the concentration camps” and “Reaffirming that the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.”
• The Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question” was the systematic mass murder campaign to eradicate all Jews, which took place between 1941 to 1945. SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who helped facilitate Operation Reinhard (the murder of Polish Jews), issued directives that designated Auschwitz-Birkenau as a central facility in mass murder, alongside 5 other death camps.
• Auschwitz-Birkenau in Nazi-occupied Oświęcim, Poland has become the symbol of the Nazi Regime’s terror, its industrialized mass murder system. An estimated 1.1 million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz, primarily Auschwitz II (Birkenau), of which approximately 1 million were Jews.
• The liberation of Auschwitz and its various sub-camps represents the end of operations at the Nazi’s largest camp, the central place of mass murder during the Holocaust.

Yom HaShoah — Jewish Memory and Meaning:

• Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was designated as a day of commemoration in Israel in 1951. The chosen date in the Hebrew calendar, the 27th of the month of Nissan, corresponds to the Hebrew date of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.
• Israeli Parliament designated Yom HaShoah on the day it chose in an aimed effort to combat Israeli sentiment that Jewish victims of the Holocaust were “led like sheep for slaughter.” Instead, highlighting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising shifted the narrative in Israeli education away from exclusive emphasis on Jewish suffering toward resistance and agency.

Distinction Matters — Why IHRD Is Important:

• Some hold the opinion that because the IHRD designation (commemoration on January 27th, specifically) was done without much, if any, discourse with the communities affected by the Holocaust, it is less significant compared to commemorative days done for and by affected communities.
• Its political origins, especially in the European context, make its designation a point of contention.
• As the UN Resolution 60/7 clarifies, IHRD demonstrates the intrinsic connection between the United Nations, human rights, and the “unique tragedy of the Second World War.” The resolution acknowledges that global action to defeat the Nazis preceded global collaboration in creating institutions and human rights norms to ensure “repetition of genocides such as those committed by the Nazi regime” can be avoided and addressed if needed.
• UN Resolution 60/7 also states that education on the Holocaust and further genocide prevention are both needed, and rejects any form of Holocaust denial.
• In the context of the UN designation of IHRD, Holocaust remembrance serves as a day of commemorating the “one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities” murdered by the Nazi Regime and its collaborators, and to function as a global educational warning against hatred and prejudice.

The designation of IHRD on January 27th — the day Auschwitz was liberated — emphasizes the mechanisms of both industrialized genocide and the need for global cooperation to prevent future atrocities. On the other hand, Yom HaShoah and Roma Genocide Remembrance center both the mechanisms and results of bigotry, dehumanization, and mass murder, and the resistance demonstrated by victims facing the Nazi Regime’s ruthless campaign.

Commemoration and education go hand in hand, and each designated day, including IHRD, serves its own distinct but complementary purpose in preserving historical truth, preventing repetition, and combatting bigotry & dehumanization.