The Holocaust, a mass genocide of Jews, gypsies, queer individuals and the disabled took place between 1941 and 1945.
Deemed as Hitler’s ‘final solution’ for eliminating all Jews from Nazi Germany, by 1945, the Holocaust ended with the murder of two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on Jan. 27, marking the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp.
Holocaust Memorial Day was designated by the United Nations in Nov. 2005. The United Nations Assembly resolution 60/7 was created to honor the victims of the Holocaust. While the resolution was created to educate people about the Holocaust and help prevent future genocides, it rejects any denial of the Holocaust and condemns all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment, or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic or religious belief.
Not only has Holocaust Memorial Day celebrated the ending of the genocide in Germany, but previous Holocaust Memorial Days have celebrated the ending of the genocide in other countries as well. Holocaust Memorial Day 2019 celebrated the 40th anniversary of the ending of the genocide in Cambodia, which ended in 1979. Holocaust Memorial Day 2019 also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the ending of the genocide in Rwanda, which ended in 1994. According to Awareness Days Events Calendar, Holocaust Memorial Day 2019, “reflected on what happens when individuals, families and communities are driven out of, or wrenched from their homes, because of persecution or the threat of genocide, alongside the continuing difficulties survivors face as they try to find and build new homes when the genocide is over.”
Most commemorations are held at the United Nations, but there are some that take place at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust. Every year on Holocaust Memorial Day, the Ministry of Dispora Affairs, a government ministry in Israel, releases an annual report on antisemitism.
There are multiple ways to celebrate Holocaust Memorial Day, including visiting or donating to a holocaust museum, or helping a holocaust survivor. You could even do an online tour of a Holocaust museum, since most museums aren’t open due to COVID-19. According to a non-profit for Holocaust Survivors,
The Blue Card, “one-third of the 100,000 survivors in the United States live below the poverty line.”
Holocaust Memorial Day is important for several reasons. One of which is assuring that history will not repeat itself. Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Hitler and the Nazis did not just decide to commit mass genocide over night. They came to that conclusion over a period of time, meaning at some point, someone could have stopped them. Holocaust Memorial Day can never be just another day that passes by. Not only do we need to make sure that the lives of those who died in concentration camps are never forgotten, but we also need to make sure that something like the Holocaust never happens again.
Photo by Wren Brooke
