President George Vella warned against the use of dehumanising language in a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at San Anton Palace on Thursday.

The remembrance day recalls the slaughter of more than six million Jews during the second world war.  

The president said the remembrance day should be an occasion for everyone to denounce all political and military activity aimed at subjugating, humiliating, or segregating human beings based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, or race.

“We owe it to the victims who paid the ultimate price and to their family members who, till this very day, continue to mourn what happened decades ago. We must make the most of the lessons we should have learnt. Most importantly, we owe it to the men, women and children still suffering persecution today,” he said.

He observed that 80 years after the Shoah, innocent people were still being exterminated with little or no shame or remorse, justified through domestic legislation and diplomatic allegiances.

“The ideology that certain people are superior to others still exists,” the President said.  

Furthermore, millions of unborn babies were being killed before they even had the chance to see the light of day, he said.

Others, also in their millions, were living in the most abject of conditions, deprived of the essentials for a dignified life, even the most basic health and education services.

The irony was that in many cases such deprivation was suffered by people  living in countries rich in resources, which were exploited by multinational business interests and the politics of greed.

In his address, President Vella warned that segregation through political and legal means and the use of dehumanising language and policies raised mental and physical demarcations were the root of human suffering and injustice.

“With all the professed good intentions on an international scale, and all the promises not to let the human degradation experienced by millions during the Holocaust ever happen again, we should be doing better. We should denounce the politics of division and instead promote the politics of peace, dialogue, and inclusion,” concluded the President.

The Holocaust Memorial Commemoration was hosted by the Office of the President and the Embassy of Germany. The commemoration was concluded by a prayer led by Rabbi Chaim Segal.