January 27, 2025 marks 80 years since Jewish victims of the Nazi regime in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp of the Holocaust, were liberated.  

While the Holocaust is one of contemporary history’s worst genocides, in terms of numbers, many Canadians lack even basic knowledge about this horrific event.  

The Holocaust (also called Shoah in Hebrew) was the systematic persecution and killing of Jews organized by Nazi Germany and its allies from 1933 to 1945. In total, approximately 6 million Jews were killed - two thirds of the European Jewish population at the time. The Nazis also persecuted Roma and Sinti peoples, political opponents, persons with disabilities, homosexual men, Slavic people, Black and racialized people and Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established over 20 000 camps and sub-camps. In those camps, death, disease, starvation, overpopulation, torture, and unsanitary conditions prevailed. Auschwitz-Birkenau was built in German-occupied Poland to carry out the official Nazi policy to exterminate all Jewish people.   More than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, including nearly one million Jews. The camp was used for forced labour and for mass murder.  It is important to note that there were several other concentration/extermination camps including Belzce, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

At the time of WWII, antisemitism was widespread in Canadian society.  Canadian immigration policies were explicitly designed to keep Jewish people from seeking refuge in Canada. In fact, when the MS St Louis arrived in Canada with 907 Jewish refugees on board, Canada denied entry to the ship and sent the boat back to Europe. This resulted in almost 300 of the refugees losing their lives at the hands of the Nazis.

Eventually, 2 300 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism were sent to Canada on British government orders. Once in Canada, the refugees were considered a threat to national security, and interned in camps in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, initially sharing camps with Nazi prisoners of war.  

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, PSAC honours the resilience and strength of the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust, and of the descendants who preserve their memories. We commit to continuing to learn, to listen and fight against antisemitism and discrimination in all its obvious and subtle forms.  We also remember that the evil of a few, the support of many, and the neutrality of the masses are some of the factors that allowed the Holocaust to happen. On this solemn day, we stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, we speak up and take action against antisemitism and all forms of oppression. 

Learn more about the Holocaust 

• Histoire de l’Holocauste – Musée de l’Holocauste Montréal 
• History of the Holocaust – Montreal Holocaust Museum 
• Survivor Testimonial Project – Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship 
• Educational resources – Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship  
• 2025 Holocaust Remembrance and Education – UN Outreach Programme on the Holocaust