January 27th marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in 1945.
In 2005, The United Nations designated January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
It is a day to honor the lives lost, remember the atrocities committed, and recommit to ensuring that such travesties NEVER happen again, anywhere in this world.
As horrendous as the holocaust was, we cannot let what happened fade from history.
While the Holocaust is likely to be a familiar word to anyone who has taken a hight school history class, I was horrified to hear a teacher say that many in the younger generations have only a vague inkling of what transpired.
Many know that Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau were two of the most well-known concentration camps. Others are less likely to know that those were not the only camps. Four other major camps existed: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Majdanek.
I can understand why we don’t want to think about the horrors that occurred during those years. After all, what happened reflected the worst of humanity.
Even now though, people often look away, dismiss or downplay Anti-Semitic behavior when they see it.
Some deny it altogether.
Though we may wish it was otherwise, the reality is this: Racism, Anti-semitism and Xenophobia still exist, and their prevalence is a blight on humanity and a clear indicator that there is still work to be done.
History and the facts speak for themselves.
Holocaust – The word’s origin is Ancient Greek for ‘burnt offering’.
The Holocaust is also known as Shoah’ to the Jewish people. Shoah’ is Hebrew for ‘catastrophe’.
Holocaust – some of our darkest days in history.
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.
Those famous words were spoken by Elie Wiesel as he accepted a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Eli Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
During WWII, he and his family, along with other Romanian Jews, were deported to German concentration camps. Both of his parents, as well as his younger sister, died in the camps; Elie and his two older sisters survived and were liberated from Buchenwald in 1945.
He went on to study journalism, obtained his US Citizenship and wrote almost thirty books, beginning with his first book, La Nuit, a memoir of his experiences in the concentration camps.
Mr. Wiesel died on 2 July 2016.
January 27th. For some people, it is just another day. But not to me. My best friend growing up was Jewish. Her family has become my family.
We know what happened. I want to ensure that as many other people as possible know what happened, too.
We must know the facts, remember the history, and prevent it from every happening again.
Of course, that’s easier said than done, when certain groups make every effort to “tidy up” history and make it less offensive and disturbing than it really is/was. Today, I read in the New York Times that a school board in Tennessee has banned ‘Maus‘, a novel about the holocaust, citing “rough, objectionable language.”
According to the Times, “The McMinn County Board of Education said in a statement on Thursday that it had removed ‘Maus‘ from the curriculum because “of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide.”
It’s almost like that school board has no idea what actually happened during the Holocaust, and therefore they fail to understand the importance of honesty discussing the horrible things that happened, in an effort to prevent it from ever happening again. The logic that it is presenting in the novel in a way that is horrible and offensive and therefore shouldn’t be shared is a whole new level of fallacy.
I have no words…
