International Holocaust Remembrance Day

This Friday, January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Historians generally define the Holocaust as the genocide (systematic, state-sponsored murder of entire groups as determined by heredity) of European Jews by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945. While the Jews bore the brunt of this atrocity (six million died), we must remember that other groups of people were targeted as well.

When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he targeted all those he viewed as inherently inferior. While some Slavic people were favored (Bulgarians, Croats, Slovaks, and some Ukrainians), Poles, Russians and Romai faced severe efforts of ethnic cleansing. Other groups were targeted because of their religious and/or political beliefs (Jehovah's Witnesses, communists). And then there were groups that could not defend themselves - homosexuals and the disabled.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was designated by United Nations General Assembly in November 2005. January 27th was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. The reason for the designation was a remembrance of those massacred during the Holocaust, and to educated future generations of its horrors.

"We must also go beyond remembrance, and make sure that new generations know this history. We must apply the lessons of the Holocaust to today’s world. And we must do our utmost so that all peoples may enjoy the protection and rights for which the United Nations stands." Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon January 2008.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana