This Monday Jan. 27, the world is joining to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This yearly occurrence came into being on Nov. 1, 2005, when the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, introduced by Israel, to designate every Jan. 27 as a day of remembrance for the 6 million victims of history’s darkest chapter.
In presenting the resolution, nations including Israel and Greece — which recognized its own National Holocaust Memorial Day in 2004 — joined forces to urge other states to come together so that future generations would be spared further acts of genocide.
Today, the few remaining Holocaust survivors, now well into their elderly years, recount their personal stories to children in classrooms from Amsterdam to Ashkelon, and Athens to Auckland.
On this day and always, we are reminded of our duty to condemn all acts of hatred, racism and xenophobia and, most important, to tackle the root causes which, in most cases, are ignorance and indifference.
This is why Israel continues to host international forums for jurists and world leaders aimed at combating modern day anti-Semitism.
The Greek government, meanwhile, has gone to unprecedented lengths to fight xenophobia and racism in all its forms. As Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stated while on an official visit to Israel in October 2013: “The Jewish people suffered from the hideous Holocaust by the Nazis ... the Greek people suffered from three years of Nazi occupation during which hundreds of thousands of Greeks were starved to death, executed and got killed fighting. Both our peoples are united by common conviction summed up in two powerful words: Never again. And both our countries have very strong diasporas all over the world. We can combine forces, multiply our strengths in this synergy.”
Luckily, for many survivors of history’s deadliest massacre, some righteous souls did step out of the shadows, risking their own lives to save friends — and in some cases, complete strangers.
Today, we remember one such individual, the late Angelo Chalikias, a Greek Montrealer who went to extraordinary personal lengths to save the life of Niso Moustaki, a young Jewish man he barely knew.
Niso, whose family hailed from Corfu, escaped from a Nazi detention facility after the deportation of the island’s 1,850 Jews to Lefkas in 1944.
In Spanokori, Angelo, who knew the Moustakis, intervened when he witnessed Niso being confronted by a local Nazi collaborator.
Risking everything, Angelo told the man that Niso was under his custody, where he ultimately remained for several months until returning home covertly.
Upon his arrival, Niso learned that his entire family, except for his brother Shlomo, had perished at Auschwitz.
In 1957 the late Niso wrote: “Through his own free and good will … he took upon himself to hide me. … He endangered both his own life and that of his family. If I am alive today in Israel … it is only due to Mr. Chalikias.”
Throughout the world, 24,811 individuals are recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations.” Many more lives could have been saved if more people had followed their example.
On this day, we join the city of Montreal and its citizens in remembering the 6 million victims of the Holocaust. And we pay special homage to Angelo Chalikias and the other “Righteous” who demonstrated the true meaning of civility and humanity.
The descendants of Angelo Chalikias will be bestowed with Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations medal and certificate at a special ceremony today at Montreal city hall.
