27 January :Holocaust Rememberance Day

27 January every year is the UN designated International Day of Commemoration in Memory of Victims of the Holocaust .

The Holocaust refers to the systematic, bureaucratic and state-sponsored persecution and murder of nearly 6 million Jews by the Nazi Regime of Germany under Adolf Hitler and their collaborators before and during the 2nd World War. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire”.

The Nazis who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were racially superior and that Jews were deemed “life unworthy of life”. During the Holocaust, the Nazis were also targeting other groups such a gypsies, Poles and Russians because of their perceived racial inferiority.

Hitler attained power in Germany when President Hindernburg appointed him Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Thereafter, the Nazi leadership lost no time in strengthening their base of power and dismantling the democratic constitution piece by piece. They developed the peculiar ideology that ridding the world of Jews presence would be beneficial to the German people and all man-kind although in reality Jews posed no threat. It was this idea that led to the extermination of Jewish people under the policy known as “Final Solution”.

The UN General Assembly Resolution that proclaimed the Holocaust Remembrance Day in November 2005 rejected any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event either in full or part. The Resolution also urged member states to develop educational programmes to inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help prevent future acts of genocide.

Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in his message on Holocaust Remembrance Day says “countless men, women and children who survived the horror of the ghettoes and Nazi death camps carry the crucial message of triumph of the human spirit. Survivors also play a vital role in keeping their lesson of the Holocaust alive for future generations, he points out.

“Holocaust survivors will not be with us forever – but the legacy of their survival must live on. We must preserve their stories – through memorials – through education, most of all through robust efforts to prevent genocide and other grave crimes. The United Nations is fully committed to this cause. Together, let us pledge to carry forward the mission of Holocaust remembrance – and uphold human dignity for all,” the Secretary General further says in his message.

- Asian Tribune -