Dear Letters Page,
On Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) I attended an evening commemoration which very poignantly recalled 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Poems were recited, a cantor sang, and survivors’ stories were read, making the whole event an appropriate and dignified tribute to the memory of those who suffered and perished in the Nazi death camps and honouring those who survived.
One thing I couldn’t help noticing was the references to other genocides like Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur which, although horrific in themselves, were put alongside the Holocaust in an attempt to make all geno-cides equal. If that is the case, then it should be re-named ‘International Genocide Day’. However, it is Holocaust Memorial Day and the Holocaust, or the Shoah, as it is called in Hebrew, should be left as it is to remember the Holocaust, not with countless other genocides as well. The Holocaust was unique both in capacity and cruelty and is unparalleled in modern history. The main focus of hatred was anti-Semitism i.e. that of the Jews and that hatred is unique, often cited as the ‘oldest hatred’. It occurs and re-occurs throughout history from biblical times.
