Recognizing global atrocities

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

These words, spoken by Martin Niemöller, a German pastor and a dissident of the Nazi regime, should have been the main motto for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day marked Saturday.

The indifference of the nations of the world and their leaders during the Holocaust enabled the mass murder of Jews almost without interference, until Allied troops were at the gates of the camps.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is aimed at reminding all nations of the world of their duty not to forget. The increasingly sophisticated attempts to deny the Holocaust and the attempts to deny that the world stood to one side during this genocide will inevitably breed the next Holocaust - even if it is not called a Holocaust, a term reserved exclusively for the genocide of the Jewish people.

There is a risk that this Remembrance Day will turn into the core issue, namely, that the nations of the world would feel as though they have fulfilled their duty by simply conducting learned discussions and ceremonies and by rolling their eyes towards the heavens once a year, while at the same time further genocides are carried out under their very noses.

Israelis ignore non-Jewish victims

International Holocaust Remembrance Day should remind the world that due to apathy, nations and societies can and do commit crimes against humanity in almost every continent, including in Europe (the former Yugoslavia,) not to mention Africa and Asia. The role of the civilized world is not to mark the good and the bad, but rather, to completely change modes of conduct. Meanwhile, humanistic values must be put to the test without any economic, ethnic or other considerations.

Israelis have for years been involved in perpetuating the memory of Jewish victims of the Holocaust while completely ignoring other Nazi victims who were not Jewish. Instead of speaking out against genocide in various corners of the world, we are busy preventing comparisons between them and "our" Holocaust. We demand that everyone recognize Jewish suffering, and even today we take every foreign leader to visit the Yad Vashem Museum.

Yet we refuse to recognize the suffering of the Armenian people, for example, almost half of whom were killed by the Turks. We refuse to believe that for the Armenians this too was a Holocaust.

Jews have a special commitment on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We should devote our thoughts and deeds to identify with other victims of the Nazi regime: Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists and the peoples of occupied nations. We should join the effort and physically prevent mass murder from being carried out in our times, and to fight the perpetrators by every means available.

As Primo Levi wrote in his book "If this is a man," all mankind must view the history of the concentration camps as a sign of the dangers lurking on the horizon. Such things must serve as a warning light for all of us all – today and for all 365 days of the year.

Dr. Nili Keren is a pedagogical advisor at Massuah, the Institute for the Study of the Holocaust at Tel Yitzhak