Saturday, January 27 is designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Throughout World Jewry, commemoration ceremonies take place to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to honour the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism.
The purpose of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is to serve as a date for official commemoration of the victims of the Nazi regime and to promote Holocaust education throughout the world particularly in view of the rising attempt by many to demythologise the Holocaust and deny or downplay its historical reality.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was the first Nazi extermination camp to be established in Poland, and the largest; those who were not killed in the gas chambers had perished because of forced labour, starvation, disease, and supposedly “medical” experiments.
Humanity could never be the same after this frightful crime – perpetrated on such a massive scale and planned so systematically. Countless people participated, actively or through indifference, as women, men and children were humiliated, rejected, rounded up, transported to places of horror and killed.
World Jewry vowed “Never Again!’ But on October 7th an ancient wound re-emerged and the unthinkable occurred. We sought to confront the facts of the Holocaust and dismantle its legacy – but we failed.
We are witnessing a sharp increase in many forms of hatred today, especially with the terrifying poison of anti-Semitism unprecedented since the period of the Holocaust and exceeding it often with the active backing of national leaders or with those who condemn it to be politically correct but who behind closed doors turn a blind eye.
The Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum and neither did the events of 7th October but on this occasion, Israel had the ability to exert its right of self-defence with fierce and forceful retaliation, vowing to destroy the cancer that threatens its existence “from the river to the sea.”
And as the world looks on, suddenly their mood subtly changes from sympathy to scorn and rage because Jews are not supposed to be able to do this – how dare they! How dare they stand up against their enemies and defy the edicts of world governments to bring into effect an immediate ceasefire with few to no preconditions that would facilitate countless more October 7ths with the existential threat of entire annihilation!
The history of Holocaust survivors is at best uneasy. They made lives for themselves, but most had lost their homes, language, families, roots, and sense of belonging.
At the same time, theirs is a history shaped by a determination to succeed against all odds and a resilience to endure beyond human limitations, marked by loss and loneliness, lives that were always slightly apart. Never quite at home. Reliving memories; striving to assimilate but never quite succeeding.
Then came the miracle of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 – out of the ashes of the Holocaust – and Israel returned from exile and found a permanent home as promised by God. But that was not the end of the story. Ever since that time, they have been the target of Jew hatred surrounded by nations determined to finish the job that Hitler failed to complete.
And then came October 7th, 2023, and we find ourselves coming round full circle. However, this time Jew hatred is not confined to regions or a continent but is fast extending far beyond to all the nations and gathering momentum at breakneck speed.
Never Again! Am Y’Israel Chai!
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