International Holocaust Remembrance Day - January 27

[ErmesT]

In the General Assembly of 1 November 2005, the United Nations adopted resolution 60/7. Remembrance of the Holocaust

Here below and excerpt on the document available on the United Nations Website

“Honouring the courage and dedication shown by the soldiers who liberated the

concentration camps,

Reaffirming that the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice,

1. Resolves that the United Nations will designate 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust;
2. Urges Member States to develop educational programmes that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide, and in this context commends the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research;
3. Rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part;
4. Commends those States which have actively engaged in preserving those sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labour camps and prisons during the Holocaust;
5. Condemns without reserve all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach on the subject of the “Holocaust and the United Nations” as well as measures to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide”

I wrote about this day in 2017, 2019, 2020, and today I’m writing again. Is it really necessary to write the same things again, some might ask? You could find the answer at the entrance to the Auschwitz I Memorial and Museum, at the entrance to Block 2, on the plaque that quotes a phrase by George Santayana: ““Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.””

Someone may think that it is an old story, a story from 80 years ago, and that it has nothing to do with today. Are you really sure? Looking at what is happening around us, seeing what is also happening to our friends, or even reading the news in the newspapers, I believe that this thing is not that old after all.

That war of the last century had parents, which are called racism, discrimination and hatred. Racism, discrimination and hatred that still manifest themselves today, sometimes in a clear way, others in a creeping way, every time someone around us is perceived as “different” because their skin has a different color from ours, or their language is different from ours, or his religion is different from ours, or his sexuality is different from ours. Sometimes that “different” person has fled his country to reach another one, in search of work or to escape from a war, and was considered “different” there. The war of the last century ended 78 years ago, but wars still exist, all around us.

The walls continue to exist, the barriers continue to exist

For this we must not forget, for this it is necessary to remember and to speak. You know what the greatest fear of people who are victims of today’s wars, victims of today’s violence is: being forgotten, being left alone. Oblivion and indifference.

For this I will always be grateful to @Kwiksatik for this post, for the simple fact that she wrote it. Not to be indifferent.

Why am I writing this? Am I not going off topic with the post title? If anyone thinks so, please read again point 5 of UN resolution 60/7 2015: “ 5. Condemns without reserve all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur;“

All this may seem strange, in an international and multi-ethnic community that I wanted to call “the Global Village” and where a year ago I wrote about “Friendship Without Borders”.

Well, the truth is that I believe that, in order to remain a multi-ethnic and respectful community, we must continue to remember, we must not be indifferent, and we must continue to speak.

Being inclusive and respectful of others is one of the cornerstones on which this community and Google Maps are built.

If you missed them, I’m sharing a series of “official” posts related to social inclusion

New LGBTQ+ owned business attribute on Google Maps

Black-owned business attribute launching on Google Maps

Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month through Google Maps

There are many more of course, but I think that to start reminding us that we must not forget, I think they are enough.

I must add that taking pictures of Auschwitz was not easy, I had to go back a second time because on the first visit I refused to take pictures. Then I thought that photos help to remember.

Thanks for reading to the end

If you remember, please let us know
If you don’t remember, ask. We will be happy to tell you more
Remembering means restoring color to history

[CAAG1959]

@ErmesT excelente publicación.

No olvido lo ocurrido, ni este genocidio, ni otros. No olvido que millones de seres han dejado, o mejor dicho, le arrebataron, la vida, por todas las razones que tú expones. No olvido a los abuelos padres, hijos, demás familiares y amigos, que jamás, hace ochenta años o un día atrás, van a encontrar una respuesta al porqué de sus muertes. No olvido.

Gracias Ernesto por tan buen llamado a la reflexión y a no perder la memoria, gracias.

Saludos desde Uruguay

[MohammadPalash]

এই দিবস এর ব্যাপারে আমার একেবারেই জানা ছিলোনা আপনার কল্যাণে জানলাম অনেক অনেক ধন্যবাদ @ErmesT

[Jesi]

Thank you for bringing awareness to this again and again @ErmesT , you writing it is very appreciated. Remembering these acts and how they started prevents them from happening again, I find that a lot of people these days (or maybe just some particular people I’ve come across) don’t know much about the Holocaust, joke about it, deny it, or tell Jews that we keep putting ourselves as victims and that we should get over it, besides worst things that I wouldn’t write here but make me think that the situation is getting worse.

I truly agree with every sentence you wrote, thank you again

[CAAG1959]

@Jesi completamente de acuerdo contigo, no sé cuál será la razón por la que el odio está creciendo, y es en todo el planeta. Sabemos que en nuestra región se escondieron innumerables seguidores del alemán innombrable y para mi modesto entender, esta semilla de odio está germinando de nuevo. Judíos, negros, emigrantes y comunidades que están “fuera de los cánones” que marca “la sociedad ¿?” hoy siguen siendo perseguidos y pretender con ellos, formar nuevos “guetos” (sociales, culturales, clasistas y todo tipo de discriminación que se te ocurra. Te pido disculpas Jesi por la perorata, pero tenemos la obligación de difundir este tema que como tú dices muchos no conocen y otros lo miran y le dan vuelta la cara.

Saludos desde Uruguay

[ErmesT]

Thank you for remembering, @CAAG1959 , and thanks for keeping the memories alive, to help others to know about our history.

It is important that all of this becomes “collective memory”.

It is important that all this becomes “collective memory”. Several years ago I visited the Auschwitz extermination camp with a young colleague. He came in laughing and joking, and no one reproached him, nor told him to respect the place. But after two minutes he stopped laughing, and after another two he stopped talking altogether. At the end of the visit we returned to Krakow, and we did so in silence. It took several hours for him to start talking again. He will never forget it.

[Gezendunyali]

A wonderful article @ErmesT Especially the photo in pajamas takes people to deep thoughts. War, massacre, genocide are these words, how empty and unnecessary. He can change his destiny. The other day, I met a Russian friend on my social media. He made a sentence to me that the whole world does not like us. I said that this is not true, and that the problem is related to the mentality that governs. For example, Turkey and Greece always seem to be at odds, but the people of the two countries are so close to each other. He is warm and sincere that you wouldn’t believe. I think the world would be a much better place if everyone had a shared awareness of human love. For example, look at this site. Here, people from many different religions, many different races, many different colors are together. And we are very happy. I think being human is both easy and difficult. I’m sure the souls of everyone who died in the massacres It is in a place where they are much more peaceful. I hope we can see beatiful years in the world where children do not cry, historical artifacts are not destroyed, and there are no tears. Thanks again for this inspiring article.

[ErmesT]

Thanks for letting me know, @MohammadPalash . The holocaust of the Jews perpetrated during the Second World War has been taken as a symbol of all brutality, and hence the need to remind future generations how certain attitudes can then degenerate.

When we forget the mistakes humanity has made, we risk repeating them again. Everything always begins in an almost trivial way, the lack of respect for the foreigner, for those with a different skin, or a different religion, or who experience sexuality differently from ours. Then we move on to defining the “supremacy” of our race, religion, ethnicity, language. And when we get to that we are one step away from war, because we come to justify war.
This must never happen again, which is why I keep writing every year, over and over again

[ChiaraMariaC]

Hello @ErmesT ,

this is very horrible what happened in this dark time!

Yes, of course I remember that, I I will never forget that, this happened also in my country.

This is very important and terrible.

Also, because the 27th of January is my birthday.

Thank you very much for writing your informative post and for remembering every year!

What happens now in this world makes me cry!

I’m so sorry for everyone who is living in one of the affected countries!

I’m afraid that the war will not end and will soon be extended to other countries in Europe.

I very wish peace and health for everyone all over the world!

I wish you, Ermes and also everyone else here all the very best!

Many warm greetings from Hamburg, Germany!

[PattyBlack]

È necessario @ErmesT adesso più che mai. Non solo per la ricorrenza, non solo per questa ricorrenza né solo per ricordare solo questa catastrofe. La paura di tutti noi adulti sta “nell’ignoranza” della gioventù sugli effetti devastanti che i regimi e le dittature hanno provocato e stanno provocando. Una volta l’anno non è sufficiente la messa in onda di film o documentari per mantenere viva la memoria come monito affinché non si ripeta mai più, ma in effetti sta già succedendo, tutti i giorni in tutto il mondo: oppressione di genere, di popolazioni, di territori o di intere nazioni. Le grandi testate giornalistiche, i canali televisivi e anche i più famosi Social vorrei che mandassero quella scritta al posto della pubblicità, 365 giorni all’anno “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. E non tocco il tasto politico… Hai mai letto sulla Treccani il significato delle parole Olocausto e Shoah? Volevo riportare qui il testo ma non so se si può, è una lettura molto interessante per capire l’origine e il reale peso di questi termini. Grazie per risvegliare le coscienze Ermes

[Kwiksatik]

@ErmesT thank you so much for tagging me, and especially for this post. Remembering the injustices faced by those who have come before us is how we protect ourselves, and those who come after. What a beautiful article.

[ErmesT]

Thank you so much for your reply, @Jesi .

Your reply give me hope, even is it is confirming that many are loosing the memory of the history, because you are so young. Your generation will find, I’m sure about that, a new way to remember, a new way to fight against racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, and every form of disrespect of the human rights.

Thank you for being you

[CAAG1959]

@ErmesT imagino que no lo olvidará jamás. Acá tenemos un Museo de la Memoria, por los “NUNCA MAS” de nuestro País, la última desde 1973 a 1985. Muertes, violaciones, torturas, vuelos de la muerte y todo tipo de aberraciones.

Siempre, desde su inauguración, por ir; cuando lo hice, ya en la entrada, una gran fila de mamelucos raídos, sucios, sin sus cuerpos ni almas, colgaban de cuerdas. Esa imagen brutal jamás la olvidaré, por supuesto que hay varias salas dedicadas al mismo tema, también conmovía, pero caminar entre esos mamelucos, en este caso, de color naranja, daba escalofríos, repugnancia e impotencia.

Tu fotografía de los mamelucos en fila, trajo recuerdos a mi mente, que no quisiera tener, pero también NO OLVIDAR para que NUNCA MAS vuelvan a suceder.

Espero que también este pequeñísimo aporte, se proyecte a generaciones venideras y mantenga viva la MEMORIA COLECTIVA.

Gracias por leerlo.

Saludos desde Uruguay

[LaloPadilla]

As always great post @ErmesT , it is important to remember so it doesn’t happen again.

Yesterday I saw on Twitter that it was trending topic and by looking at the comment section of certain posts about awareness and I was surprised by a ton of people denying it and supporting this awful part of history, best we can do is not feeding the trolls and reporting accounts, internet would be a better place if all websites were like Connect.

There’s a museum called “Museo Memoria y Tolerancia” I remember visiting it in 6th grade, it opened my eyes about human rights, Memory section is about genocides and in my opinion every person should visit it, it creates awareness and educates people to avoid more violence.

Here’s a phrase I found yesterday “The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words.”

[ravindus]

Thanks for the post @ErmesT . As a person who lived through three decades of war in my country, I can imagine the horrors. We should never forget how brutal war can be so it would never happen again.

[FaridTDF]

Coincido contigo Jesica y por supuesto contigo Ermes, el holocausto como muchas otras negaciones de muertes como el caso de Argentina de los 30.000 muertos durante la dictadura militar.

Son casos a los cuales hay que recordárselo a todas las generaciones, ya que como dice la cita, “Los pueblos que no conocen su historia están condenados a repetirla”, en muchos casos para mal.

Y para los que dicen que es mentira, hay que ignorarlos, tiene falsos intereses cuando repiten esas mentiras de algunos medios de comunicación.

Como sea gracias por el post @ErmesT

[Maximilianozalazar]

@ErmesT que exelente post! Siempre presente en la memoria de la humanidad, realmente un suceso impresionante sin procedente.

En Argentina tenemos un simbolo que representa todo lo que no debemos olvidar y siempre recordar lo que significo el holocausto para el Mundo.

Muro de Berlin en Buenos-Aires .

Saludos. Maxi

[JuanAudelo2025]

Good job!!! On this crude subject, I would like to comment that in Mexico City there are many museums, but in particular one of them is the Museum of Memory and Tolerance, which vividly describes the holocaust perpetrated against the Jewish people by the Hitlerian hordes. This institution provides Education, Memory and Research on the Crimes against Humanity. Greetings