International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Not to be confused with Yom HaShoah (April 19, 2012), the United States’ Holocaust Remembrance Day, today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 1945, the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, and in 2005 this day was adopted as the United Nations’ day of Holocaust Remembrance—a day in which every nation state in the United Nations is obligated to honor the over 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. This year, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is dedicated to the children who died in the Holocaust. Today, the Secretary-General of the United Nations gave this statement:

“One and a half million Jewish children perished in the Holocaust – victims

of persecution by the Nazis and their supporters.

Tens of thousands of other children were also murdered.

They included people with disabilities… as well as Roma and Sinti.

All were victims of a hate-filled ideology that labelled them “inferior”.

This year’s International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is dedicated to the children – girls and boys who faced sheer terror and evil.

Many were orphaned by the war, or ripped away from their families.

Many died of starvation, disease or at the hands of their abusers.

We will never know what these children might have contributed to our world.

And among the survivors, many were too shattered to tell their stories.

Today, we seek to give voice to those accounts.

That is why the United Nations continues to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust.

It is why we strive to promote children’s rights and aspirations – every day and everywhere.

And it is why we will continue to be inspired by the shining example of great humanitarians such as Raoul Wallenberg, in this, the centennial year of his birth.

Today, as we remember all those lost during the Holocaust – young and old alike -- I call on all nations to protect the most vulnerable, regardless of race, colour, gender or religious beliefs.

Children are uniquely vulnerable to the worst of humankind.

We must show them the best this world has to offer.

Thank you.”

H.E. Mr. Ban Ki Moon

The Secretary-General of United Nations

For more information about International Holocaust Remembrance Day and how to attend a memorial in your area, click here.

An email we received from a teacher

An email we received other day from a teacher. We have posted it with her permission.

Dear Holocaust Center,

I would like to order your DVD With My Own Eyes. I have taught the Holocaust through both my World and U.S. History classes for twenty years, and I will be retiring from teaching in June, 2013. I would like to leave not only all of my Holocaust teaching materials gathered from so many workshops over the years, but also your DVD that focuses on many of the speakers my students have listened to spellbound in person. As these wonderful people pass on, we need to have their voices still heard by this new generation of high school students.

Please tell Klaus Stern that his voice has resonated with my students from the 1990’s at Shorewood High School to the students of Northgate Middle College High School. I keep in touch with many former students, and one of the most lasting experiences of my classes has been Klaus’ talk. Just yesterday I was visiting a former student from MCHS who now has a new baby. As we were talking, she said she’d love to have me meet her husband who is also a huge history buff, especially zeroing in on WWII. She then mentioned listening to Klaus Stern and related almost every part of his talk to those kids. She mentioned how it touched her so deeply and she will never forget his story and what happened in the Holocaust. MCHS works with at risk kids, drop outs, etc., and all of them were forever changed by listening to the hardships and stories of Mr. Stern.

I am finishing my teaching career as the only high school Social Studies teacher at Seattle Public Schools’ parent partner program. I teach regular high school classes as we are bound by all of the state and national standards just as any regular or alternative high school program. Over half of my students are Muslim, mostly girls in long flowing dresses, and this message needs to be heard by them too. This spring I am hoping to put in a speaker’s request one more time for Klaus Stern if he is still able to withstand the rigors of classroom visits. If not, the new DVD will be there to tell the story of Klaus and all the other survivors.

Karen Hansen
Seattle

"Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing"
Dr. James Waller
January 19, 2012. 6:30pm - 8:30pm.
Microsoft, Building 99, Redmond
Free and open to the public
RSVP - ilanak@wsherc.org

The past century, dubbed the "Age of Genocide," saw more than 60 million people murdered to meet the needs of the state. One unassailable fact is that political, social, or religious groups wanting to commit mass murder are never hindered by a lack of willing executioners. How is it that ordinary people commit such extraordinary evil?

Dr. James Waller is the Holocaust Studies Chair at Keene State College, an Affiliated Scholar with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, and author of
Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2007).

Also offered - Teacher Training: Friday, January 20, 2012. 8:30am - 3:30pm. At Bellevue College. Keynote: Dr. James Waller, "Genocide: Ever Again."