This release was issued under a previous government.

“Seventy-three years ago, as the Nazi regime crumbled, its horrific crimes were exposed. Six million Jews and millions of other innocent people had been systematically slaughtered because of their ethnicity, faith, disability or sexuality.

“However, the Nazis’ goal was not just to kill those considered inferior. The aim was to erase them from existence. In the new world the Nazis sought to build, it would be as if their victims had never been.

“Memory is one of the most powerful defences we have against hatred. Honouring the six million Jews and the millions of others who died in the Holocaust is an act of defiance.

“It’s also a promise to never allow such evil to thrive again.

“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I ask all Albertans to keep this promise in mind.

“Let’s protect the rights and freedoms we hold dear, for ourselves and our children.”