Never Again: Holocaust Remembrance, Human Rights and the Global Call for Justice

The world observes the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust every year on 27 January. In 2026, this date marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi concentration and extermination camp in 1945. This is a moment of profound significance that encapsulates the depths of human cruelty and the ultimate necessity of vigilance.

 The United Nations (UN) General Assembly designated this day as a day of remembrance, education and meaningful action. It urges the global community to address the conditions of intolerance, dehumanization, hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice that once enabled such harm. A 2022 UN General Assembly resolution stated:

“The General Assembly, reaffirming that the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of nearly 6 million Jews, 1.5 million of whom were children, comprising one third of the Jewish people, in addition to the killing of millions of members of other nationalities, minorities and other targeted groups and individuals, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice”.

The birth of global human rights

The Holocaust was the moral crucible from which the modern international human rights architecture emerged. Recognizing the failures that permitted the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others, the UN was founded in response to the horrors of the Second World War.

This profound impact led directly to the adoption of foundational documents in 1948:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which sets the standard for fundamental human dignity for all people

• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which criminalizes mass persecution such as that witnessed at sites like Auschwitz-Birkenau

• The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, which continues this mandate by amplifying the themes of combating antisemitism and defending human rights worldwide.

Commemorating the Holocaust is not only an act of historical recollection but also an active contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). The Holocaust shows how inequality can be weaponized, highlighting the need to combat discrimination and ensure that no one is left behind. It also reinforces the importance of peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice, and building effective, accountable institutions.

Local relevance: UNACTO and the Toronto landscape

For organizations like the United Nations Association in Canada Toronto Region Branch (UNACTO), the global mandate of Holocaust remembrance finds immediate and necessary local expression. Connecting the lessons of history to contemporary issues is crucial in a diverse and rapidly evolving city like Toronto.

The impact of the Holocaust is often brought into sharp focus by institutions like the Royal Ontario Museum, which hosted the exhibition, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away in 2025. Such exhibits serve as concrete, inescapable reminders of the scale of the tragedy. Visitors gained an intimate and sobering perspective by viewing camp objects, individual belongings, archival records, photographs and survivor testimonies. However, the raw details are what truly shatter abstraction. Personal effects, like a child’s shoe with a sock still sitting in it, and the harrowing images of Jewish women and children from Subcarpathian Rus (Ukraine), selected by the Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) for death and forced to walk to the gas chambers. This transforms history into an urgent, contemporary responsibility.

Complementing such temporary exhibitions, the Toronto Holocaust Museum, open year-round, continues this vital work of remembrance and education. It provides ongoing opportunities for dialogue, critical reflection and learning about the Holocaust’s enduring relevance in Canada today. Together, these institutions reaffirm our collective responsibility to recognize, monitor, and counter the resurgence of hatred and antisemitism.

The resilience to build a life rich beyond measure

The International Day of Commemoration is also a day to honour the survivors who carried the indelible trauma of loss while simultaneously dedicating their lives to rebuilding the world. The story of Toronto resident Anna Grosman’s father, Gabor Komaromi, is one such testament to resilience.

Gabor was a young Jewish person in Romania who, after being forced into labour camps, lost his parents, Ilona and Marton Schön, in Auschwitz. After the war, he rebuilt his life in Budapest, became a doctor, and eventually fled the 1956 revolution with his partner and two young children, settling in Montréal. As a notable historical point relevant to the UN’s mandate, the episode highlighted both the limitations of UN power during the Cold War and the tragic consequences of diplomatic deception.

As his daughter, Anna, wrote, Gabor was a person of medicine, music and quiet wisdom who “had been unlucky to have lost so many family members under the most brutal of circumstances, and he never got over those losses”. Yet Gabor’s life was not defined by tragedy—it was defined by what he created afterwards. Gabor studied relentlessly to requalify in Canada, treated thousands of patients for 50 years, and found “great contentment” in later years. This included travelling and delighting in his three grandchildren, Jesse, Marc and Cory, who now all have families of their own. Gabor demonstrated that resilience can be a powerful act of defiance against fascism.

In his final years, Gabor travelled to Toronto to attend a play by his daughter’s theatre group, watching the performance with pride. It is in moments like these, including laughter, art and quiet commitment to family and vocation, that the enduring human spirit, which Nazism attempted to extinguish, is revealed. This is where it finds its most profound victory. As Anna reflected, “he was lucky to have had the resilience to carry on and build a life that was rich beyond measure”.

Gabor and Anna (left) (photograph by Marc Grosman)

Gabor with grandsons Jesse, Marc and Corey (centre) (photograph by Marc Grosman)

Gabor (right) (photograph by Devesh 'Andy' Komaromi)

On 27 January, we remember Dr. Gabor Komaromi and the millions who perished. The commemoration is a solemn, continuous vow to apply the lessons of the past to the threats of the present, ensuring that the human rights foundation established after the Holocaust remains firm for generations to come.

Edited by Aleksandar Cimeša

Title image credit: Sonia Dauer