The House of Representatives on Wednesday saluted the millions who died in the Holocaust.

The commemoration is held annually to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, coinciding with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.

Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo recalled the horror of the concentration camps and said a visit to Auschwitz should be a life lesson for all. 

He said tribute should also be given to the many who had, at great personal risk, worked to avoid further killings. The best way to prevent a repetition was for all to work for a world where there was equality and dignity for all.

Carm Mifsud Bonnici, shadow minister for foreign affairs, said millions of innocent people had been killed, purely because of their race. To forget, or to make people forget, made one an accomplice, he said. And neutrality helped the aggressors. 

It was important that people were told of the horrors of the concentration camps and the dangers of racism, he said. 

Maltese heroine helped saved lives 

Henrietta Chevalier

House Speaker Anglu Farrugia associated himself with the two speakers. He paid tribute in particular to Henrietta Chevalier, a Maltese woman in Rome who in the Second World War helped Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty set up a network based at the Vatican which saved a large number of Jews and allied servicemen from the clutches of the Nazis. 

He said that Malta had a history of kindness to the Jews, as evidenced as far back as a Jewish catacomb in Roman times. Malta had also welcomed many Jews in the 15th century after they were evicted from Spain. 

Farrugia also underscored the importance of education and tolerance to avoid a repeat of the horrors seen in the second world war.