Holocaust Remembrance Day: why is looking back so vital?
Every year on 27 January the victims of the Holocaust are commemorated. Although there are ever fewer eyewitnesses who can give personal testimony about the mass murders committed by the Nazis, numerous events are held to help keep the memory alive. Efforts to educate people about the past must be redoubled, commentators urge.
The horror was real and man-made
We must repeatedly confront the worst aspects of our past to draw lessons for the future, Corriere del Ticino insists:
“It's difficult to talk about remembrance in a world that tends to deny even its own present. But that is precisely why it is so important. That is precisely why we need to pause every year on 27 January and go back in time. Back to the Holocaust. It is right that we face up to human nature, to the worst in ourselves. It is right that we acknowledge that this horror was real – caused by humans – that it was possible and still is. We see it in the wars that are currently raging, in the conflicts that receive most attention in the media, but also in those that are forgotten.”
Education needed to counter lies
Ireland is not doing enough to commemorate the Holocaust, according to The Irish Times:
“Almost one in 10 Irish people aged between 18 and 29 believe the Holocaust is a 'myth', while 19 percent in this age group believe it happened but believe its scale has been 'greatly exaggerated'. These findings align with similar surveys in the US and other parts of Europe, albeit with parallel robust support for education about the Holocaust. ... An avalanche of digital content has replaced the denuding of old. Instead of censorship, we have an abundance of distortion, lies and denial, as history, or what purports to be history, is weaponised.”