World marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

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JANUARY 27  is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the date the United Nations has chosen to commemorate victims of the Holocaust during World War II. Six million Jews were murdered by Germany’s Nazi regime, along with 5 million non-Jews who were killed.

The anniversary, marked each year since 2005, falls on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland by the Russian army in 1945. One million people died there.

The president of the European Parliament has warned of rising anti-Semitism as Holocaust Memorial Day is marked around the world.

The Parliament held its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day with the European Jewish Congress on the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

It came as Auschwitz survivors travelled to the camp in modern day Poland to lay flowers and remember those who were murdered by the Nazis.

Speaking at the memorial day event in Brussels, Mr Schulz warned that many Jews across Europe still do not feel safe.

He said: ‘Jewish life is part of our culture and our identity. Without the Jews, Europe would not be Europe. Therefore it hurts that in today’s Europe, Jews again live in fear.

He added: ‘Our collective memory of the Holocaust is fading fast, but if we allow the horrors of the past to fade into history, we are doomed to make the same mistakes again.

‘We need more that just ceremony and commemoration. When anti-Semitism is on the rise, when Jews are once again fleeing Europe.

‘When a murderous Islamic extremist ideology is threatening our existence, we need action as well as words.

‘It is time for our leaders to commit to a robust, unified and coordinated approach to tackling anti-Semitism and Islamic extremism.

‘We must all stand against hate refuse to allow history to repeat itself, making ‘never again’ a reality.’

 

 

33 thoughts on “World marks Holocaust Remembrance Day”

  1. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, disabled people, and Roma were eliminated, as well as Jews. I say Jews rather than Semitic people, which includes Jews and Arabs. Interesting that they have had for a long time the distinction of being monotheistic, in contradiction to the early Aryan and Greek (for instance) cultures

    The Nazi prejudices must never return. I have read theories of why it did happen, but am not vouching for credibility.
    http://www.truetorahjews.org/naziismzionism

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  3. It is good that they don’t want the horrors of the past to fade into history. It is a pity that the horrors of this countries past has faded into history.

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    • Maybe we should look at the past and current horrors of the worlds islamic countries. Quite a horror story that will continue. Sadly, not fading into history.

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    • That would be a good idea Alexie because they are ignored at the moment. The sulphur rain in Palestine. The medical sanctions and uranium bullets in Iraq that killed and deformed hundreds of thousands of children. The blowing up of Muslim civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia by drones. They spring to mind.

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      • The main difference between the crimes committed by the West and those by the Middle East. Is the Western leaders are put into power by the people and represent the will of the people. In some cases they are even reelected such as George Bush who committed war crimes but was reelected regardless.

        The Middle East are a collection of dictators and militia groups that put themselves into power helped by the power vacuum created by disastrous foreign policy.

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      • The main talking point of what I said is not the power vacuum but that the West having leaders that are representing their people doing terrible thing. The Middle East have leaders and militia that represent themselves doing terrible things…. mainly to Muslims.

        In Islam, leaders are appointed by consultation so if these so called Muslim countries actually followed Islam they would not have the leaders they have. There is no monarchy or automatic passing of leadership from father to son in Islam. The mess is a symptom of a greater problem that people are moving away from Islam.

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  4. Pingback: The Holocaust and other genocides… remembering without repeating – Essential Thinking

  5. Hitler and Islam

    The photo is taken during the division training at Neuhammer. The romantic notions that Himmler had about the Bosnian Muslims were probably significant in the division’s genesis. He was personally fascinated by the Islamic faith and believed that Islam created fearless soldiers. He envisioned the creation of a Bosnian SS division constituted solely of Bosnian Muslims in a manner similar to the Bosnian divisions of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.

    Many of these soldiers came from Bosnia, and it was a conscious decision to fight the Communist Partisans and the nationalist Chetniks. The Nazis tried to cater to the Muslim religious needs of their recruits, but the soldiers themselves cared more about protecting their homeland (as promised by the Nazis), than anything else the SS and Himmler told them about racial equality/superiority to the inferior Jews. Riots and desertions were commonplace among the soldiers, often to the Communist Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito, who promised the soldiers amnesty if they joined the Partisans. The soldiers were only interested in protecting their homeland in Bosnia, so any incursions into Croatia or Serbia to help the Nazi allies or war effort there met with consternation among the soldiers, and even more desertions.

    http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/muslim-waffen-ss-13th-division-1943/

    In 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini fled to Germany and met with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim Von Ribbentrop and other Nazi leaders. He wanted to persuade them to extend the Nazis’ anti-Jewish program to the Arab world.
    In 1945, Yugoslavia sought to indict the Mufti as a war criminal for his role in recruiting 20,000 Muslim volunteers for the SS, who participated in the killing of Jews in Croatia and Hungary. He escaped from French detention in 1946, however, and continued his fight against the Jews from Cairo and later Beirut. He died in 1974.

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    • There are some rather hysterical writings and videos pushing the theory that one sect of Judaism was keen on eliminating other sects, and collaborated with Hitler. However that may be, there did seem to be early collaboration in getting Jews out of Germany into a homeland of their own.

      Both Nazis and a section of Jews believed in racial purity, and agreed that each should have a national homeland. Britain was limiting a Jewish intake into Palestine, while Germany assisted many to get around that.

      Reading here – http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v13/v13n4p29_Weber.html the conclusion is :
      In spite of the basic hostility between the Hitler regime and international Jewry, for several years Jewish Zionist and German National Socialist interests coincided. In collaborating with the Zionists for a mutually desirable and humane solution to a complex problem, the Third Reich was willing to make foreign exchange sacrifices, impair relations with Britain and anger the Arabs. Indeed, during the 1930s no nation did more to substantively further Jewish-Zionist goals than Hitler’s Germany.

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      • The Institute for Historical Review (IHR), founded in 1978, is an organization primarily devoted to publishing and promoting books and essays described by critics as pseudo-historical that attack the mainstream historical consensus concerning the Nazi genocide of Jews.[ It is considered by many scholars as the center of the international Holocaust denial movement IHR is widely regarded as antisemitic and as having links to neo-Nazi organizations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Historical_Review

        Founded in 1978 by Willis Carto, a longtime anti-Semite, the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a pseudo-academic organization that claims to seek “truth and accuracy in history,” but whose real purpose is to promote Holocaust denial and defend Nazism. It has reportedly had links with the Ku Klux Klan leadership.

        https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/institute-historical-review

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      • That would explain a lot, Bryan. This article lacked the rather hysterical approach I’ve seen in conspiracy theories, such as holocaust deniers seem prone to, but it’s level-headedness could be deceiving.

        It made no attempt to deny the holocaust, made no attempt to deny Hitler’s increasing insanity, and presented statements which could be verifiable of pre-war conditions – not that I did or could check them – and did not deal with the main persecution period. But an association with the Institute for Historical Review puts it outside the pale.

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  6. http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/gallery/

    German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini:
    Zionism and the Arab Cause (November 28, 1941)

    Haj Amin al-Husseini, the most influential leader of Palestinian Arabs, lived in Germany during the Second World War. He met Hitler, Ribbentrop and other Nazi leaders on various occasions and attempted to coordinate Nazi and Arab policies in the Middle East.

    Record of the Conversation between the Fuhrer and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem on November 28, 1941, in the Presence of Reich Foreign Minister and Minister Grobba in Berlin.

    The Grand Mufti began by thanking the Fuhrer for the great honor he had bestowed by receiving him. He wished to seize the opportunity to convey to the Fuhrer of the Greater German Reich, admired by the entire Arab world, his thanks of the sympathy which he had always shown for the Arab and especially the Palestinian cause, and to which he had given clear expression in his public speeches. The Arab countries were firmly convinced that Germany would win the war and that the Arab cause would then prosper. The Arabs were Germany’s natural friends because they had the same enemies as had Germany, namely the English, the Jews, and the Communists. Therefore they were prepared to cooperate with Germany with all their hearts and stood ready to participate in the war, not only negatively by the commission of acts of sabotage and the instigation of revolutions, but also positively by the formation of an Arab Legion. The Arabs could be more useful to Germany as allies than might be apparent at first glance, both for geographical reasons and because of the suffering inflicted upon them by the English and the Jews. Furthermore, they had had close relations with all Moslem nations, of which they could make use in behalf of the common cause. The Arab Legion would be quite easy to raise. An appeal by the Mufti to the Arab countries and the prisoners of Arab, Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan nationality in Germany would produce a great number of volunteers eager to fight. Of Germany’s victory the Arab world was firmly convinced, not only because the Reich possessed a large army, brave soldiers, and military leaders of genius, but also because the Almighty could never award the victory to an unjust cause.

    In this struggle, the Arabs were striving for the independence and unity of Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. They had the fullest confidence in the Fuhrer and looked to his hand for the balm on their wounds, which had been inflicted upon them by the enemies of Germany.

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    • The Palestinian view on the Mufti

      Palestinians today see Husseini as one of their national fathers. But their admiration is mitigated, he said, because Husseini was so strongly pro-Nazi and was ineffective in advancing the Palestinian cause.
      His stature among Palestinians, Maoz said, pales to that of Yasser Arafat, whose memory enjoys near universal reverence. But Palestinians tend not to criticize Husseini in public, Maoz said, because they want to display unity.
      “Not a few Palestinians think he wasn’t so positive,” Maoz said. “He was very stubborn. But those who oppose him don’t emphasize it out of solidarity.”
      Hebrew University professor Moshe Maoz

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  7. Thanks for this post Bryan. I have a friend in Sweden, a deeply religious man, who has written an amateur history of Auschwitz-Birkenau. He visits the site most years when travelling to Poland to see family. I hope to go with him one day.

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