ATHENS — The United States is committed to working with Greece and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) "to combat Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and intolerance in all its forms", said US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt on Wednesday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The US also "strongly supports Greece’s leadership of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance this year", he noted, and "will continue to support the Greek government’s efforts to build a world-class Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki, to tell the story of the tens of thousands of Thessaloniki Jews who perished in the Holocaust."

"Greece, and Thessaloniki in particular, was home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Europe," Pyatt highlighted, as Thessaloniki was "rightfully called the Jerusalem of the Balkans. Greek Jews are an integral part of Greece’s rich history and will be a key part of Greece’s future."

On the 16th International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the United States "will pay tribute to the six million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazi regime", he stressed, as "we also honor those who survived the Holocaust, while acknowledging the scars that many survivors have carried ever since."

"We look forward to the online events that the United Nations and UNESCO have organized in partnership with the IHRA to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day," Pyatt underlined, because it is "up to all of us to educate the next generation so that the horror of the Holocaust is never repeated."