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Holocaust: Diligence needed to avoid a repeat of history

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on many aspects of life, including the commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Week, which started Sunday, and Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was Wednesday.

As detailed in a story in Thursday’s Mining Journal, people around the world found ways to mark the day, the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945.

Much of this year’s memorial was done online, with large gatherings still being avoided because of the pandemic.

But the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization website conveys that every year at this time,

“UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.”

With our country still trying to heal some great divides, we must not forget what happened when Adolph Hitler tried to wipe the planet of a whole race.

The UNESCO site states: “The Holocaust profoundly affected countries in which Nazi crimes were perpetrated, but also had universal implications and consequences in many other parts of the world. Member States share a collective responsibility for addressing the residual trauma, maintaining effective remembrance policies, caring for historic sites, and promoting education, documentation and research, seven decades after the genocide. This responsibility entails educating about the causes, consequences and dynamics of such crimes so as to strengthen the resilience of young people against ideologies of hatred. As genocide and atrocity crimes keep occurring across several regions, and as we are witnessing a global rise of anti-Semitism and hateful discourses, this has never been so relevant.”

Indeed, UNESCO emphasizes: “The #ProtectTheFacts campaign seeks to increase awareness of the phenomenon of Holocaust distortion. It empowers individuals to identify and counter Holocaust distortion in society and on social media. The campaign aims to protect knowledge acquired through historical research on the Holocaust by promoting historical literacy and Holocaust education. Only when there is consensus about the basic facts of history, are we able to learn from the past and engage with it in the present so that we can prevent history from repeating itself. We must #protectthefacts.”

As British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Never should we as the people of the world allow such a horror to be perpetrated again. But with genocides in countries like Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur in the more recent past, we know another holocaust is all too possible.

We encourage all of our readers to become educated in the history of our world and to pledge to do better so all human beings are protected from the hate of others.

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