Malta’s Parliament on Tuesday commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day, with strong warnings from both government and opposition figures that hatred, disinformation and dehumanisation remain urgent threats in modern society.
Speaking in the House, Owen Bonnici, Minister for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, said the Holocaust must not be remembered as a sudden act of violence, but as a gradual process that began with language, fear and the systematic degradation of human dignity.
“The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers,” Bonnici said. “It started with words – with the portrayal of innocent people as enemies, and with the false idea that society’s problems could be ‘solved’ by blaming minorities.”
He stressed that six million Jews were murdered not because of spontaneous violence, but because hatred was normalised and encouraged by society. Bonnici warned that such conditions can re-emerge when fear and frustration are exploited by those offering false solutions instead of real leadership.
The minister underlined that Holocaust remembrance is not only about the past, but about safeguarding the present and future. He highlighted the growing danger of misinformation, noting that falsehoods today can appear more credible than truth, particularly through modern channels of communication.
In this context, Bonnici said contemporary conflicts — including in the Middle East — must be viewed through the principle that every human life is sacred. He reiterated Malta’s position that peace cannot be built on hatred, but on political security and dialogue, noting that in 2025 Malta formally recognised the State of Palestine.
“Remembering the Holocaust means closing the door to violence,” he said. “It is about remembering lives, names and stolen futures — and about humanity’s promise never to allow such dehumanisation again.”
Also addressing Parliament, opposition MP Beppe Fenech Adami, described the Holocaust as one of the darkest chapters in human history, during which millions of men, women and children were systematically murdered under an ideology rooted in hatred.
“The victims were not statistics,” Fenech Adami said. “They were families, children who never grew up, parents who never saw their children grow.”
He described the Holocaust as particularly chilling because science, technology and law were distorted to justify cruelty, while fear and propaganda enabled genocide to advance step by step. Like Bonnici, he stressed that genocide begins not with violence, but with slander, discrimination and silence.
Fenech Adami warned that democracy and law alone are insufficient unless grounded in dignity and moral responsibility, adding that the Holocaust was made possible not only by its perpetrators, but also by bystanders who remained silent.
“Antisemitism is not only a Jewish problem,” he said. “History shows that when it is tolerated, it opens the road to violence.”
He emphasised the importance of education in helping future generations recognise early warning signs of hatred and resist them before they escalate into violence, particularly as the number of Holocaust survivors continues to decline.
Both speakers concluded by urging courage in confronting hatred wherever it appears, describing Holocaust Memorial Day as a conscious choice to uphold humanity, speak out against antisemitism, and recognise every person as fully human.