cross posted from LiveJournal
On January 27, 1945, Allied troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as International Day of Commemoration to honour the victims of the Holocaust.
The stated goal of the Day of Commemoration is
to instil the memory of the tragedy in future generations to prevent genocide from occurring again, and requested the United Nations Secretary-General to establish an outreach programme on the "Holocaust and the United Nations", as well as measures to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, in order to help prevent future acts of genocide.
Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis simply because they were Jewish. It's common to say "never again" when talking about the Holocaust. But our actions suggest that's just a hollow slogan to make us feel better about ourselves. In the mid-1990s, the world stood idle while up to 1 million ethnic Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers were slaughtered in the Rwandan civil war. If you haven't seen the excellent film Hotel Rwanda I highly recommend it as it shows how awful it was to live in fear of slaughter due solely to one's ethnicity. The Rwandan civil war spilled over into neighboring Republic of Congo where it has since resulted in over 5 million deaths, many from starvation and disease.
The current conflict that has been characterized as genoicde is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan. This conflict has developed along Arab-Muslim and non-Arab Muslim ethnic lines as the nomadic Arab muslims have encroached on the non-Arab Muslim farmers for resources. The Arab-Muslims have the backing of the Sudanese government. It has been estimated that 400,000 have been killed to date and over 2 million people have been displaced from their land. In response, the international community has generally recognized that the situation in Darfur amounts to genocide, but the various African Union and United Nations peacekeeping efforts have proven mostly ineffective. You can find out more about how you can influence action in Darfur at SaveDarfur.org.
And so on this day of remembrance of the inhumanity of man, the words of Robert Kennedy remind us of why we must speak out:
We must recognize the full human equality of all of our people before G-d, before the law, and in the councils of government. We must do this, not because it is economically advantageous, although it is; not because of the laws of G-d command it, although they do; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do.