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.