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Wednesday 27th January 2010

What the web is saying about Holocaust Memorial Day

January 27 is International Holocaust Memorial Day: an occasion to remember all those who have been killed in acts of genocide around the world.

The website for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust puts the anniversary in context, drawing attention to instances of genocide throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as featuring an archive of stories from holocaust survivors. It explains why the theme of this year's commemorations is 'The Legacy of Hope', and contains information about events in your area.

BBC News has covered some of the events happening around the world, including a ceremony to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Addressing Germany's parliament, Israel's president Shimon Peres said some of those who carried out the Holocaust "still live on German and European soil, and in other parts of the world. My request of you is: Please do everything to bring them to justice."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Julian Kossoff offers a collection of memories, suggestions and actions. "If you have the opportunity, go to Auschwitz," he urges. "It's the great anti-wonder of the world. Part pilgrimage, part journey to the heart of darkness: apocalypse then. Wander its tombs, its mansions of horror. There is the 'room of hair', great rotting mounds of the stuff, shaved from the 1.1m heads.

"Another door opens on a pile of human spare parts. A grotesque, twisted sculpture of wooden legs, prosethic arms, trusses, metal hands, neck braces, rusting callipers, clunking fists - all hinges and brackets - that the crematoria could not devour."

Another view is offered in The Toronto Star, where Frank Dimant asserts: "As frightening as it is to admit, in 2010 we must again ensure that society does not sit by complacently as we witness the ugly face of anti-Semitism rising again, with Der Sturmer-type propaganda appearing even here in Canada, and a new mad man overseas promising the destruction of the Jewish state.

"Recently, a modern-day blood-libel accusing Jews of kidnapping and murdering 25,000 children in order to harvest their organs was plastered on the front page of a leading Islamic community newspaper right here in Canada. And the reaction? We heard hardly a murmur, let alone any public condemnation. This silence had all the trappings of a media chill: it would not apparently be politically correct to draw attention to such an incident."

The Vatican Radio website carries news that the Pope has acknowledged this year's Holocaust Memorial Day. "With deep emotion we think of the countless victims of blind racial and religious hatred, who suffered deportation, imprisonment, death in those abhorrent and inhuman places.

"May the memory of these facts, particularly the tragedy of the Holocaust that affected the Jewish people, inspire increased conviction of the dignity of every person, so that all men perceive themselves as one great family."

Silvan Shalom, Israel's vice prime minister, wonders in The Jerusalem Post if the world does enough to recognise the survivors of the Holocaust. "I regret to say that even today, 65 years later, while we are asking the world to acknowledge the Holocaust and the rights of the Holocaust survivors, we here have still not yet done all that is necessary to give the survivors all that they are entitled to by right and not merely by way of charity."

The Russian news agency Tass reports that: "For the first time ever, a commemorative event will be held Wednesday at the site of the former Nazi ghetto in Kaluga, some 180 kilometers to the southwest of Moscow. It happened to be the first Nazi camp for Jewish convicts on the territory of Europe to be liberated right at the peak of the World War II combat operations."

The Guardian compiles memories from six Holocaust survivors. One, Sabina Miller, says: "When I came to England, for the first two or three years I was still apprehensive to tell people I was Jewish. I fell in love with this country because what I got was kindness and acceptance." The article notes how "Sabina flourished: she married, raised a family, learned English, made friends, worked in retailing, and became what she hadn't been in years - herself."

Holocaust Memorial Day is being recognised all over the UK, from services in Kent, a music festival in Bristol and an exhibition in Wokingham to a gathering of 2,000 children from 33 schools in Northwood on the outskirts of north west London, a survivor addressing a service in Southend, an open-air service in Lynn in Norfolk, students from Totnes taking part in a role-playing horror story, and a ceremony at Bolton Town Hall.

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