The Secretary-General lamented the fact antisemitic hate can be found everywhere today and, he said, it is increasing in intensity.

The Holocaust was the end of millennia of anti-Semitic hatred and the painful truth is that anti-Semitism is everywhere, he warned.

The date, he added, is a call to be on constant alert, not to remain silent ahead of hatred and others´ suffering.

The UN official listed current effects of the economic crisis, populism, misinformation, hate speech, “growing disregard for human rights and disdain for the rule of law” as threats to a similar catastrophe.

White supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies, attempts to rewrite history, deny the Holocaust and rehabilitate its collaborators, and intolerance also live in today’s societies, Guterres added.

“Neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements are becoming more dangerous every day,” he said, while recalling events such as the shootings in Buffalo and El Paso in the United States and attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

“We know how easily hate speech becomes hate crime, how verbal violence breeds physical violence, how diversity and social cohesion are undermined, as are the values and principles that unite us,” he emphasized.

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