Every 27 January, we commemorate the Victims of the Holocaust in the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops in 1945.

Holocaust comes from ancient Greek and it means “burn all”. Basically, that is what Nazi regime did. They exterminate the impressive amount of 6 million Jews.

But where did this hate towards Jews came from?

Well, Jews in Europe have been discriminated and persecuted during centuries. They have always been accused of being responsible for the bad things that have happened during history such as the Plague pandemic during the 14th century or the death of a Russian Czar at the end of the 19th century.

With the emergence of the racial mindset, the idea of Jewish people being a different race and therefore not belonging to the populations where they lived, settled down.

When Germany lost the first World War, Jews where blamed of the enormous debt generated and accused of being in favour of the communism. However, the first intentions of the Nazi regime where not to kill Jewish people, but to force them to leave the country. Subsequently, Jews started to be persecuted in 1933, saw their rights limited with the proclamation of Nuremberg laws in 1935 and evolved to systematic violence against them after the night of broken glass at the end of 1938.

The beginning of 1939 brought a more violent phase against Jewish People. The possibility of being able to emigrate and leave the country is almost impossible with the war and Jews are confined in Ghettos and forced to live in very poor conditions, with violence and the constant fear of being deported to concentration camps.

In 1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union and Hitler’s actions get more radicle. Einsatzgruppen (paramilitary death squads) start killing not only man between 15 and 60 but also elderly, women and children and massive killing appears as a solution to speed the process of Jews eradication. Thence, in 1942 “Operation Reinhard” comes up and extermination camps are built. These camps are different from concentration camps, people sent in them are killed shortly after arriving and only a small group is kept alive to maintain the functioning of the camp. In November 1943 Operation Reinhard ends and the camps are dismantled, and the victim corps burnt.

At least 1,75 million Jews were killed during Operation Reinhard.

During 1943 and 1944 Jews from other parts of Europe are sent to concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, like Italy, Hungary, Turkey, the Balkans and Greece. During 1944, the German army and naval units concentrated the Jews residing in the former Italian occupation zone in Greece at assembly points. German officials then deported 800 Jews from Athens, almost 2,000 from Corfu, and almost 2,000 from Rhodes to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Only when Allies are getting close to Germany, Jews persecution comes to an end. During the last months of the war Jews are killed in the called “Death Marchs” as a way of evacuating the concentration camps to avoid them form being rescued by the Allies. Even after the end of the war and the liberation of the camps, a lot of Jews die due to the hunger, illnesses and exhaustion.

​As we mentioned above, the Nazis killed the impressive amount of 6 million Jews and the purpose of remembering the horrors lived during the Holocaust every 27 January is that Humankind learns from its errors and doesn’t fall into the same mistakes over and over again.

​Εvery year on the 27th of January, UNESCO remembers the victims of the Holocaust and raises awareness about the consequences of antisemitism and racism, or in other words, the hatred and intolerance which may lead to group-targeted violence. It was officially proclaimed in 2005 and this day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.

The Nazi Holocaust has not only affected 6 million Jews, but also other individuals like Jehovah’s Witnesses, queer people or people with disabilities. Nazis constructed concentration camps, detention centres, forced-labour camps,and killing centres where the Jews were tortured, starved, and killed massively. Therefore, nowadays everyone should have the responsibility to learn about the mistakes of the past which entails educating about the causes, effects, and dynamics of such crimes to strengthen the resilience of young people against ideologies of hatred.
​
On the other hand, today people are constantly taking pictures or selfies of themselves everywhere and sometimes they do not realise their behaviour in public places. There are people who take pictures at the Holocaust victim’s memorials and some of those pictures show a total lack of respect towards the victim’s remembrance. These places represent terrible things and were built to safeguard the memory of dead Jews and what human beings that are blinded by hatred are capable of doing.  Everyone must be conscious that millions of people were killed in these places, so for this reason, the memories must be respected.

Everyone tends to imagine the word Holocaust like a situation where Jews were killed in concentration camps, but, unfortunately, this was not the only time genocides happened; during the history of mankind, there have been many other cases: in Rwanda, Tutsis were displaced to refugee camps and 75% of this population was wiped out barbarically. Another case was the Armenian Genocide, between 1915 and 1923, when the entire Armenian population was ordered to be deported from Istanbul and most died of hunger and thirst. Additionally, the genocide perpetrated throughout history against the Native American tribes. Many experts thought this was the most sustained in history, because between the 16th and 20th centuries, tens of millions of people were killed.

Nowadays, current affairs in some countries are saddened when everyone hears about crimes against women, the LGBT+ community and racism. There has been a wave of hatred in many countries, including countries belonging to the European Union. Last year, Brussels sentenced Hungary and Poland for discrimination against LGTB+ people. Also, in some countries like China, the Uighur group has been repressed for years, and since 2017, the country developed a system of “re-education” and ethnic cleansing. Τhe Occident confirmed what is happening in China, considering it genocide. Thus, China is one of the International United Nations members that is facing charges of genocide for its repression of the Uighur ethnic group.
​
This International Day is very important to remember the past and hope that genocide does not get repeated. Everyone has the opportunity to respect the memories of those lost in the Holocaust and look around to ensure no hate crimes occur. Never again.

As we evolve, the educational systems evolve with us. From a practical teaching of personal wisdom to a highly complicated system that mostly conveys theoretical knowledge, our educational systems changed as each community became bigger and our scientific knowledge became more advanced and too complicated for only one person.

However, not only science is reflected in our education but also society itself. Do we teach practical processes or abstract philosophies? How does everyone talk about history and politics? Are we able to acknowledge mistakes in our state?

Often when we take a look at the educational system, we can also say a lot about how the state is functioning. Is this an educational system that invites critical thinking or one that produces marionettes? 
 
Education forms us, the ones that build our society and who ultimately will also adjust our educational system and like this reflect back on our learnings.

It is true that formal education is not the only learning that we have in life, it is probably not even the most important one. Scientists say that the first three years of education determine most who you are going to be and most people are not yet in kindergarten by this age. We can also not forget that we live in a digital age where everybody can educate themselves. Nevertheless, this is the one thing we can control as a society. And we have to keep going with the time and change our system instead of leaving it as it “always” was.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what many countries are doing. We still have schools that do not teach adequately about colonialism, that uphold gender stereotypes and that rely heavily on traditional teaching even though modern studies show that this is not the best way to learn. This is because the social change lies mostly in the younger generation. They are more flexible in their opinions and accept change more easily. In the end this also means that things will change eventually. 
 
We just have to wait until the younger generations grow up and naturally take possession of the power in society. On the one hand it is frustrating to wait for change especially because by this time there will already be new insights and ideas that will take again a long time to realize. 
 
On the other hand however, maybe this time is needed to ensure a safer conversion. By the time society is ready for the new ideas we will have verified which of them have the potential to endure over a long period of time and developed concepts that have them as their basis. What we will not be able to change is this slow process of generations and the change they fight for.
​
As G.K. Chesterton puts it:
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another”.

Education is one of the most important words in our society like Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. That means that you can try to struggle against the stereotypes thanks to education.

Let’s take the gender neural education as an example: gender neutral education means to teach boys and girls without any differences according to their gender. For instance, parents who have a son and a daughter can buy dolls, cars, princess dresses, superheroes costumes for both of them. The consequences could be that their son prefer to play with the doll than their daughter. It’s not the only thing that parents can do to give a gender-neutral education, they can also talk with their children about domestic tasks, every member of the family should take part equally in domestic tasks. Their children will understand quickly that men can also clean, cook and care.

However, the school system still reproduces a lot of gender stereotypes and doesn’t really help to fight against gender inequalities. Boys take up all the space in the playground and don’t accept that girls play with them. At school, boys are more aggressive and are used to fight to play while girls are more used to play doctor or teacher… Schools could at least split the playground equally so the girls are not run over by the boys and can have their own space. Boys and girls should learn how to play, talk, discuss together.

The society doesn’t let parents so easily to give the education they want to give to their children. From the youngest age, children are influenced by the society, girls should be calm, discreet while boys should show their knowledge, their strength… As a result, gender neutral education represents more a dream than reality…