At an event organised by the European Jewish Congress in Brussels, over 400 people, including 20 permanent representatives to the EU and bilateral ambassadors, members of the European Parliament, high-level EU officials, journalists and representatives of international and Belgian Jewish organisations, gathered to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, honour the memory of the victims of the Shoah amid rising antisemitism in Europe, and commemorate 80 years since the Nuremberg trials.
On this important occasion, participants attended a special preview screening of the film Nuremberg, directed by American filmmaker James Vanderbilt and featuring Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Rami Malek.
The screening highlighted the trials’ enduring legacy for international justice and their foundational role in shaping modern human rights and accountability mechanisms. At a particularly challenging time for Jewish communities across the world, revisiting the lessons of Nuremberg remains both timely and essential.
EJC Executive Vice-President Raya Kalenova welcomed the guests and said: “The Shoah was beyond comprehension. Millions of lives were destroyed, families erased, dreams and futures stolen. And yet, Nuremberg gave those atrocities a name. It gave them a record. It gave humanity an answer: justice.”
“It was at Nuremberg that terms such as genocide and crimes against humanity were first defined, not for politics, not for rhetoric, but for historical truth and justice. The misuse of these terms, which have specific legal criteria and require the demonstration of intent recognised by an international court, fuels violence in our societies and can lead to terrible consequences,” Ms Kalenova warned.
She reiterated that, “The trials codified horror into memory. They transformed chaos into evidence, destruction into testimony, evil into accountability. They taught us where dehumanisation, hatred, and mass violence can lead.”
In his address, H.E. Amb. Avi Nir-Feldklein, Head of the Mission of Israel to the European Union and NATO, said: “The reality Jews face today across the democratic, liberal world resembles more closely the days that led to the Nuremberg Laws than the world the Nuremberg Trials hoped to shape.”
For his part, Member of the European Parliament and member of the Working Group Against Antisemitism (WGAS) Antonio López-Istúriz White highlighted that: “Remembering Nuremberg means remembering that justice and memory do not belong solely to the past but are a permanent responsibility. At a time when antisemitism, hatred, and intolerance are once again on the rise, we must reaffirm our commitment to human rights, democracy, and the dignity of every person as non-negotiable pillars of our society.”
H.E. Amb. Martin Kotthaus, Ambassador of Germany to Belgium, remarked that “we have already seen where indifference leads: antisemitism begins with ignorance and a lack of education, continues with exclusion and looking away, and ends in violence and murder,” adding that “remembrance must never be an empty ritual. Rather, it is an investment in the future of Europe, a future in which Auschwitz is remembered, values are upheld, and no one is marginalised or targeted because of their faith.”
The event comes against a background of spiraling antisemitism in Europe, with Jewish communities across the world facing threats and murderous attacks against their members and institutions.
