Today is Holocaust Memorial Day an important opportunity for us all to reflect on the darkest times of our history..We remember the six million Jewish people, and everyone murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, all victims of Nazi persecution and the victims of subsequent genocides. The genocide of the Jewish people, Roma and other minorities during World War II is a brutal reminder of what can happen in a society overtaken by division, prejudice and hatred, and the fragility of our own humanity, security and safety.Today we remember the victims but also the lesson. Never again must mean never again.
The slogan Never Again symbolised the determination of anti-fascists and the labour movement that after the Holocaust, genocide must never happen again - that no one should be annihilated because of an accident of birth and who they are.
“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
Elie went on to write a number of books about his own personal story and that of the Holocaust (also known as 'the Shoah’ in Hebrew) in general, and his works — along with the likes of Primo Levi (author of If This Is A Man) and Anne Frank, whose diary is famous across the world — are some of the most defining stories of that era. They are books I would implore everyone to read, especially as a 2021 study found that over half of Britons did not know that six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that two million or fewer were killed.
And though it is easy to leave history in the past, events like The Holocaust must be remembered — they must be remembered out of respect for those who lost their lives, for those who overcame the most severe form of persecution and went on to become productive members of the communities in which they settled and for those who are yet to even step foot on this planet. We must, as Elie Wiesel says, “bear witness” to these events, and pass their stories and their lessons onto the next generation, so that we can avoid such horrors happening again.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Holocaust was the greatest crime of the 20th century because of the sheer scale of the premeditated and industrialized murder that occurred.
As we contemplate the monumental nature of this moment, it’s instructive to consider the history of International Holocaust Remembrance Day itself. This annual commemoration was created by the UN in 2005, to take place annually on January 27: the day Aushwitz-Birkenau , the largest of the Nazi Concentration Camps was liberated by allied forces. In its resolution establishing the day, the UN General Assembly made it clear that this observance would not merely be about commemorating the past; it pointedly urged member states “to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.”
The GA also made it explicit that this remembrance would not be limited to the European Jewry alone, but should also extend to “countless members of other minorities” who were murdered en masse by the Nazi regime.
From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used persecution, propoganda, and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their foundation. By the end of the Holocaust more than a million inmates, primarily Jews, were brutally and systematically killed in the place where the Nazis introduced the monstrous concept of ‘industrialized murder.’ Among the other victims were non-Jewish Poles, political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses,Trade Unionists,. half a million mentally and physically disabled, to say nothing of the millions of prisoners of war, Poles, Russians alongside others deemed undesirable who were exterminated by the nazis between 1939 and 1945.We honor their memory and must pledge to defeat antisemitism and all forms of hatred, never again allowing such horrors to occur.
Zionism however drew different conclusions from the Holocaust. As Professor Yehuda Elkana, a child survivor of Auschwitz and the Rector of the Central European University wrote in Ha’aretz, in 'The Need to Forget' in 1988: a profound existential “Angst” fed by a particular interpretation of the lessons of the holocaust … that we are the eternal victim (arose). In this ancient belief… I see the tragic and paradoxical victory of Hitler. Two nations, metaphorically speaking, emerged from the ashes of Auschwitz: a minority who assert, “this must never happen again,” and a frightened and haunted majority who assert, “this must never happen to us again.”
The Holocaust played an important part in the establishment of the State of Israel yet it was because of the Nakba, the expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeland, that a Jewish State was formed. A series of massacres accompanied the Nakba which were aimed at ‘encouraging’ the flight of the Palestinian refugees.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day arrives today at a deeply fraught moment for the Jewish community. Just yesterday, we received the news that the International Court of Justice, ruling on a case brought by South Africa ordered that Israel must do everything within its power to prevent genocidal acts against Gazans. Such acts include, among others, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about Gazans’ physical destruction, carried out with the intent to destroy the Gazan people.
To further mitigate the risk of genocide, the court also ordered Israel to immediately and effectively enable the provision of humanitarian aid and basic services to Gaza. The ICJ’s order is legally binding on Israel, as are the Genocide Convention and Geneva Conventions. Accordingly, there is no doubt that Israel must take concrete actions to ease what the court found to be a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” and restore conditions that can support life in Gaza, not risk its destruction. Specifically, Israel must allow food, water, medical aid, fuel, and other humanitarian essentials into Gaza, without delay or arbitrary restrictions on quantities or types of aid. Israel must cease telecommunications blackouts to ensure aid can be delivered to and distributed across Gaza. Israel must stop denying humanitarian aid distribution within Gaza. Israel must limit its military operations in Gaza to ensure that humanitarian aid can be delivered to and distributed across all of Gaza. Israel must not attack civilians waiting for humanitarian aid. Failure by Israel to take these steps places Gazans at further risk The order but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.https://icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf
In short, International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024 is arriving just as Israel are literally being judged on the world stage for an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
I realize how painful – even unthinkable – it will be for many Jews to lift up the lessons of International Holocaust Remembrance Day to suggest Israel that is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.But if this particular day is truly is to be a day for us to apply the “lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide,” it is all the more critical for us to speak out and name a genocide that is literally unfolding before us in real time. No matter how uncomfortable or painful the prospect.Lett's remember the 26,000 slaughtered Palestinians in the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine and Apartheid Israel murdering hundreds of people within 24 hours of the InternationaL Court of Justice ordered it to prevent acts of genocide.
On International Holocaust Memorial Day, we must remember all those who lost their innocent and precious lives in the past.Remember, it didn’t start with gas chambers. It started with politicians dividing the people with ‘us vs. them.’ It started with intolerance and hate speech, and when people stopped caring, became desensitized, and turned a blind eye.
“Never Again” was always meant to mean never again for all regardless of skin colour, religion or ethnicity.We are all human. We all bleed the same colour, red. When we say 'Never Again', we have to mean it. “Never again” means we must never see the slaughter that we saw during the Holocaust again. And it doesn’t matter who these crimes are being committed against, just as it doesn’t matter who the perpetrators of the crimes are.
Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembering everyone who is the victim of Genocide: WW2, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and Gaza etc History begs us not to make the same mistakes. No human deserves death in the name of politics or power.Peace not war is the only solution for humanity
This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us find the courage to speak the words that must be spoken. Ceasefire now. No more genocide.
