Dear Letters Page,
On Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) I attended an evening commemoration which very poignantly recalled 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Poems were recited, a cantor sang, and survivors’ stories were read, making the whole event an appropriate and dignified tribute to the memory of those who suffered and perished in the Nazi death camps and honouring those who survived.
One thing I couldn’t help noticing was the references to other genocides like Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur which, although horrific in themselves, were put alongside the Holocaust in an attempt to make all geno-cides equal. If that is the case, then it should be re-named ‘International Genocide Day’. However, it is Holocaust Memorial Day and the Holocaust, or the Shoah, as it is called in Hebrew, should be left as it is to remember the Holocaust, not with countless other genocides as well. The Holocaust was unique both in capacity and cruelty and is unparalleled in modern history. The main focus of hatred was anti-Semitism i.e. that of the Jews and that hatred is unique, often cited as the ‘oldest hatred’. It occurs and re-occurs throughout history from biblical times.
If there is a need for a separate Genocide Day there would be many ideas for dates on which to do this, but the Shoah, which means ‘disaster’ or ‘calamity’, should remain as its own day of remembrance for the sheer number of Jewish victims who perished. Ostensibly other historic anti-Semitic atrocities could be cited, but this one day a year is the time when society can address the mistreatment of the Hebrew race among the Christian nations of Europe. Let’s not weaken that resolve by making it just a general remembrance.
Anti-Semitism is raising its ugly head again and the blending all genocides together only helps the anti-Semitic brigade to encourage the public to forget just how many died purely for being Jewish.
Yours most sincerely,
