Letters to the editor: Sharing stories for Holocaust Memorial Day

The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children, by the Nazis and their collaborators.

The discrimination, persecution, and murder was a result of radical Nazi policies against minorities across Europe. Each year, we mark Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27th of January, the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death and concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Holocaust Memorial Day also commemorates the other victims of Nazi persecution, victims of the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia, and of genocides still ongoing. These include: The Mass killings and rape of an estimated 400,000 Darfuri men, women, and children in Sudan; the destruction of villages and murder of over 28,000 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar; and the detention and forced re-education of up to a million Uighur in China. After the Holocaust, we said “Never again”. We have said that after each subsequent genocide.

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Genocide does not start with mass killings, with detainment, or with destruction – The Holocaust, for example, was preceded by the gradual introduction of discriminatory legislation that restricted the rights of Jewish people living in Germany. There is no one reason for genocide, and there is no one way a genocide can be carried out. In the Holocaust, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered millions through mass shootings, or extermination and labor camps where they were gassed, shot or worked to death. In Rwanda, approximately 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists over the course of 100 days, on roads, rivers, and in churches, by machetes and grenades; in Cambodia, over 4 years, the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians, including many intellectuals, and those from religious and ethnic minorities.

On Holocaust Memorial Day, we must hear the stories of the dwindling numbers of Holocaust survivors: their thoughts, their experiences, and their emotions. Their experiences during the Holocaust were horrific and inhumane. We must also hear the testimonies of the survivors of subsequent genocides and continue to educate ourselves. Having heard survivor testimonies from the Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide, and Srebrenica, and being a Regional Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust, I can say that hearing the stories of survivor’s changes people’s perspectives to understand what persecution, and the inhumane, really is.

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Survivors share their testimonies so we never forget the horrors of genocide, and where persecution and hatred can lead if left unchallenged. As Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel said ‘When you hear from a witness, you become a witness’. It is now the responsibility of our generation to share the stories of survivors and share their messages of tolerance. When we do this we are not only commemorating the dead, but also changing the future.

Alfie Thomas

Regional Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust

Bracknell