Between 1938 and 1945 European Nazi and Fascist regimes, and the people who supported them, annihilated millions of Jews and thousands of homosexuals, handicapped, mentally ill, and gypsies they had labeled as “stranger,” “unwanted,” and “subhuman”. Prejudice and racial hatred put a halt to the lives of millions of individuals and devastated the societies in which this crime was perpetrated.

On January 27, 1945 the Soviet Army entered and liberated the extermination camp of Auschwitz, starting the liberation process. This date was chosen in the year 2000 to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to promote the fight against racism. Following the efforts of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, Research and the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, Italy, Germany, and France established it as a national observance and they were joined by all of the countries of the European Union and the United Nations.