An agreement was signed on Thursday by Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia to fund and reopen a cooperative permanent exhibit in Block 17 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the Republic of Poland.

Minister Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska was unable to attend the ceremony at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, according to a press release from the Culture Ministry. Refet Hajdari, the Chargé d’Affaires of Macedonia’s Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, delivered the minister’s speech. According to the minister of culture, the Macedonian government is still dedicated to preserving historical records, upholding the Holocaust memorial as “a bridge between the past and the future, affirming the meaning of peace and tolerance.”

In her speech, the Minister of Culture stated, “The re-establishment of the joint exhibit is our debt and obligation to the past, in respect and memory of the Holocaust, so that it is never forgotten and never repeated.”