Almost one third (32%) of Brits know little or nothing about the Holocaust. On Holocaust Memorial Day, as the world commemorates 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, freelance writer Deborah Cicurel urges us not to forget the lessons of the past.
, as the world commemorates 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, freelance writer Deborah Cicurel urges us not to forget the lessons of the past.This is the phrase that has been drummed into me since I was a little girl. It referred to the Holocaust, the state-sponsored genocide during World War Two, and masterminded by Adolf Hitler, that killed six million Jews. Millions of other innocent people were also slaughtered, including those with disabilities, prisoners of war and homosexuals.
I, along with the rest of my school year, took an eight day trip to Poland, in order to visit the Warsaw Ghetto and concentration camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz, the largest of the camps, where over a million men, women and children were killed. Many of my friends had grandparents who had survived the Holocaust, or family members who had lost their lives in concentration camps.
In the USA, according to the study, over a fifth of millennials have not heard of, or are not sure they have heard of, the Holocaust. This was also the case for 11% of adults. Additionally, two thirds of millennials could not identify what Auschwitz was, while nearly half believed that two million Jews or fewer were killed during the Holocaust.
Remembering the Holocaust is not just about standing up to Holocaust deniers. It’s not just about commemorating the millions of lives that were senselessly lost. It’s not just about mourning the dead, and hearing the miraculous stories of those who made it out alive. It’s not just about understanding the depths of human depravity and evil, and learning about the destruction that can happen when political power gets into the wrong hands. Remembering the Holocaust is not just for Jews.
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