Every Day Casual Special Day Elegant
January 27, 1945 is officially recognized as a day of remembrance for Holocaust victims in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, because it marks the day when an advancing Soviet army liberated the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.
From 27 January 2011:
The General Assembly in 2005 designated 27 January, the date of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest and most notorious of all of the camps, as the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, and this year's theme pays special tribute to the suffering of women.
“Mothers and daughters, grandmothers, sisters and aunts, they saw their lives irrevocably changed, their families separated and their traditions shattered,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “Yet, despite appalling acts of discrimination, deprivation and cruelty, they consistently found ways to fight back against their persecutors.
“They joined the resistance, rescued those in peril, smuggled food into ghettos and made wrenching sacrifices to keep their children alive. Their courage continues to inspire. On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us honour these women and their legacy.
“Let us pledge to create a world where such atrocities can never be repeated. We are all aware that such a future has yet to arrive,” said the Secretary-General.
Paying homage to the millions of Jews and thousands of other victims, including Roma, Slavs, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah's witnesses, communists and other political dissidents “whose lives were brutally cut short by the ideology of hatred of the Nazis and their allies,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed that the Holocaust should serve as a reminder of the dangers of marginalization of particular groups and the need for urgent action at the first signs that a climate conducive to genocide is emerging.
“It should remind us that hateful words have the ability to translate into hateful actions. The threat of genocide still remains,” she said.
“While we can never compensate for the Holocaust, or do justice to its millions of victims and their descendants, we can at least ensure that by remembering their suffering, and acting on what we have learned, we can mitigate the suffering of others today and in the future,” she added, stressing the importance of bringing perpetrators to justice.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry led a delegation of senior UN staff to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, to commemorate the International Day. As part of their visit, Mr. Serry and Deputy Special Coordinator Maxwell Gaylard laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance to remember the six million Jews, and others, killed by the Nazis.
Exhibitions on the Holocaust are being held at various UN offices, including New York, Vienna and Paris, with a travelling exhibit due to visit other centres, including in Africa, all stressing the categorical imperative of never allowing such a catastrophe to be perpetrated again.
The educational-preventive significance of the Day is a major focus of the UN Outreach Programme set up by the General Assembly in 2005 with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) this year producing a Study Guide – Women and the Holocaust: Courage and Compassion – to help high school students better understand the experiences of Jewish, Roma and Sinti women during the terror brought on them by the Nazis and their collaborators.
“Faced with discrimination, impossible living conditions, and the prospect of death at every turn, these women were determined to meet their families' needs and protect their children to the best of their ability,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka says in a foreword to the Guide.
“As their husbands, sons and fathers were arrested and deported, traditional gender roles changed, placing greater responsibilities upon women in the family and community in the ghettos, and often making the difference between life and death in the camps... Once homemakers and caregivers, women had to work outside the home and adapt to stay alive in the worst of circumstances, even when their children were killed before their eyes.”
UN News
LONDON - They're good enough for the former Kate Middleton, but apparently not good enough for her husband's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Fascinators — the delicate, whimsical pieces of head wear favoured by the young and posh in Britain and beyond — have been banned from the royal enclosure at Royal Ascot, one of the most exclusive events in Britain's social calendar.
Organizers said Wednesday that those hoping to rub shoulders with the queen at the horse racing meet would have to stick to hats, no fascinators.
It's the latest in a series of rules aimed at tightening the dress code at Ascot, where organizers have tried to push back against the proliferation of provocative outfits, outrageous accessories and revealing tops.
Other rules introduced or reinforced Wednesday include the requirement that women at the royal enclosure wear dresses that fall below the knee and that the men accompanying them must wear a top hat (grey or black).
The queen can wear whatever she wants, but the guidelines affect the royal enclosure, which usually includes a few hundred invited guests, not just the royal family.
Some of the rules — no bare midriffs or strapless dresses for example — fall in line with organizers' attempts to roll back the nouveau-riche nightclub look, but fascinators are favoured by the highest reaches of the upper-crust.
Kate Middleton, now known as the Duchess of Cambridge, is a fan. So, too, are princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and other fashion-forward royals.
Nick Smith, Ascot's head of communication, acknowledged that "there is an argument that some fascinators are formal."
"But the very fact that there is that argument" was reason enough to ban them from the royal enclosure — where the queen gathers with the cream of British aristocracy to watch the races.
"Some fascinators have become so small that they're nothing more than a hairband and a feather," he added.
So did Elizabeth call up to say: "Off with their fascinators!"
Smith laughed. "No, that doesn't happen," he said. "We set the rules."
Still, he noted that organizers were in touch with the queen's staff and he said it would be "unlikely that we'd put something in place that she'd be uncomfortable with."
The next Ascot takes place in June.
By Raphael Satter, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
Ladies are kindly reminded that formal day wear is a requirement in the Royal Enclosure, defined as follows:
Gentlemen are kindly reminded that it is a requirement to wear either black or gray morning dress which must include:
