Our Race Relations Commissioner is fighting against hate speech by naming and shaming.

Dame Susan Devoy has released screenshots of a series of anti-Semitic Facebook comments made in recent weeks, uncensored and named.

She said the comments are vile.

"This is racist hateful stuff and it has no place in our country and we need to show other New Zealanders that that is not acceptable behaviour in New Zealand, or anywhere actually."

Using Holocaust Remembrance Day to raise the issue, she said hatred starts small and is born in the hearts of those who casually spread it around their networks.

Devoy said the online comments she has seen are vile, hateful and racist.

"And if we fail to call it out, all of us, you know we allow that to be accepted and that's what we are saying today, that we do not tolerate that kind of prejudice and intolerance in our country."

And a Holocaust survivor warns if a genocide can happen in Germany, it can happen anywhere.

Commemorations today in Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and worldwide are remembering the almost six-million Jewish people who died under the Nazi regime.

Holocaust Centre of New Zealand's director Inga Woolf said Germany was a very cultured country before Hitler took power and had been leading Europe.

She warned if such a thing could happen there it could happen anywhere.

"Beware of racism we can't have it here, luckily we don't have too much of it but we mustn't let it grow, if it grows who knows where it could lead, we need to nip it in the bud wherever we see it."

Woolf said teaching children not to be bystanders to racism is key in avoiding further genocide.

She said if more people had stood up to Hitler, perhaps history would've told a different story.

"We teach children it's important to respect everyone regardless of colour or race and not to be a bystander if they see bad things going on."