This year we are celebrating 75 years since Germany’s surrender which marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. It was a joyful day then and continues to be so today; it meant the end of violence and fighting, the end of persecution for communities whose only fault was their ancestry or skin color.

Hundreds of thousands of brave men and women served in the Allied Forces and Resistance movements and we remember their sacrifice with gratefulness. We honor their memory and pay tribute to their service. They fought to defend democracy and freedom for all of us.

Helmut Geuking, our MEP from Germany reflects on the significance of this day: “May 8^th is the day the people of Europe were liberated. We were freed from unbearable suffering and destruction, from a cruel government that despised and systematically killed people. On this day, three quarters of a century ago, a traumatized Europe embarked on a long journey to find peace and reconciliation. This is a day of remembrance which calls for vigilance: never again shall we give into hate, never again antisemitism, never again war!”

Although we came a long way since then and institutions like the EU and the UN were formed, random and senseless acts of antisemitism still take place in Europe and worldwide. The fight for a world without racism, xenophobia and hate goes on. As such, we joined members of the European Parliament in promoting a petition which calls for the end of antisemitic behavior in Europe. Join us all in signing this petition and declaring hate has no place in our society. Peter van Dalen, ECPM Member of European Parliament from The Netherlands, echoes this sentiment by declaring emphatically: “Never again! The Holocaust showed that humans are capable of unspeakable evil towards each other. Therefore, we should do everything we can to denounce and stop antisemitism with every chance we get.”