"We have a sacred duty to remember the twisted thinking that led here — how a great society of culture and science succumbed to the worst instincts of man and rationalized mass murder and one of the most barbaric acts in history," [President Barack] Obama saidToday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, set on this date because 65 years ago the infamous Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps were liberated by the Russians.
All of us--Jews, non-Jews, people of whatever colour, religion, and nationality, should remember the genocide that took place there. As Obama said, this great crime was perpetrated by one of the most cultured societies at the time. Genocide can develop anywhere that there is intolerance, distrust, and hatred for a group based on some innate characteristic. The dehumanisation of Jews, Romany, and other groups was a horrific stain on the human collective soul. Those who deny that it happened are blind to history, to memory, to the existence of these very survivors who bear testament to what happened during that very dark time. Please, teach your children tolerance, treat your fellows humanely, and remember that even in the evil that was perpetrated those decades ago, there were people who sought to save the Jews, who risked their lives to stand up to the Nazi ideology, and who did what was right and good. These righteous Gentiles, as they are known in Israel, remind us that even when evil seems to reign, good is not extinguished. Someday you may have the choice between defiance and complicity--please choose wisely.
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