Prime Minister Stefan Löfven addressed the Jewish community of Sweden at the Great Synagogue in Stockholm, in a ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Today, we have gathered to grieve, and to support all of you who still live with the emptiness left behind by your parents, family members, friends and loved ones,” said Mr. Löfven, “but we are also doing it to honour and celebrate that which has lived on. Jewish life and the fantastic Jewish culture, which has survived millennia of persecution and oppression”.
In his remarks, PM Löfven also addressed the issue contemporary antisemitism in Sweden, threats and hatred towards Jews remain horribly widespread in Sweden,” he stated, “here, no emptiness, no moral vacuum, can be allowed to exist. Here, we must step in and, with unhesitating clarity, expose, confront and combat antisemitism, wherever it may appear and no matter who expresses it.”
“Jewish life is an incontrovertible part of Sweden and, wherever it is threatened or challenged, it will be defended. Let there be no doubt about this,” he added.
In addition, PM Löfven addressed the issues of antisemitism and Holocaust remembrance in a Statement of Government Policy on 21 January 2019, “Wherever antisemitism exists, and however it is expressed, it must be identified and fought. In 2020, Sweden will host a new international conference on remembrance of the Holocaust, and Swedish young people should be given the opportunity to visit memorials in Europe. A new museum will be established to preserve and pass on the memory of the Holocaust.”