International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Many people mistakenly believe that only Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Catholic priests, nuns, and other Catholics who stood by their true faith and did not follow the order to replace Bibles and icons with Hitler's portraits, swords, and oaths to the Nazi Party were sent to concentration camps and death camps. Jehovah's Witnesses also were considered enemies of the Nazi state. Poles, Russian prisoners of war, Roma, the disabled, the frail elderly, Aryan Germans who resisted Nazi policies, and LGBTIQ people of all racial designations and faiths were sent to concentration camps and death camps.
The Nazis were not original. American and British eugenicists had already published many books--and put into practice--the art and science of selecting and exterminating those they considered unfit. In fact, some states of our Union allowed for the sterilization of those that state agencies identified as "poor" or "mentally challenged" in some way. Women were particularly at risk for such state-supported sterilization, as were people of color.
There were other holocausts, other genocides, before and after "The Holocaust". Occupation of the lands known as the Americas led to such. Colonization of Africa led to such. The Turks have not yet officially recognized their role in the mass murder of Armenians. Piles of skulls may come to mind when people say "Cambodia" or "Rwanda". "Ethnic cleansing" has taken place, and continues to take place, in countries around the globe. The government-sponsored or government-approved persecution and extermination of LGBTIQ people continues to take place in countries around the globe. Even in our country, we have people who support such actions.
It is a strange name for a day--"International Holocaust Remembrance Day". Most of us cannot remember what we did not personally experience. But we can learn, and maybe we can learn that if no one speaks out against oppression and injustice, then there will be no one will speak for us.
The Nazis were not original. American and British eugenicists had already published many books--and put into practice--the art and science of selecting and exterminating those they considered unfit. In fact, some states of our Union allowed for the sterilization of those that state agencies identified as "poor" or "mentally challenged" in some way. Women were particularly at risk for such state-supported sterilization, as were people of color.
There were other holocausts, other genocides, before and after "The Holocaust". Occupation of the lands known as the Americas led to such. Colonization of Africa led to such. The Turks have not yet officially recognized their role in the mass murder of Armenians. Piles of skulls may come to mind when people say "Cambodia" or "Rwanda". "Ethnic cleansing" has taken place, and continues to take place, in countries around the globe. The government-sponsored or government-approved persecution and extermination of LGBTIQ people continues to take place in countries around the globe. Even in our country, we have people who support such actions.
It is a strange name for a day--"International Holocaust Remembrance Day". Most of us cannot remember what we did not personally experience. But we can learn, and maybe we can learn that if no one speaks out against oppression and injustice, then there will be no one will speak for us.