Yesterday (27th January 2020), marked the 75th anniversary of Soviet soldiers liberating the Auschwitz death camp in the final year of the Second World War. Survivors of the Holocaust and current world leaders attended the ceremony at Auschwitz, to remember those killed by the Nazi regime. However, alongside remembrance, a strong message was also made highlighting the importance of ensuring that this does not happen again.
The focus of this year’s ceremony was on the survivors themselves and their message was clear, world indifference to hatred must stop so that events like the Holocaust do not happen again (Connolly, 2020). This message was echoed by the French president Emmanuel Macron, who stated that Antisemitism is not just a problem for the Jewish community, rather it is a problem for us all (BBC, 2020). Statistics from the UK also demonstrate that Antisemitism is still very much a contemporary issue in society. The second most targeted group of religious hate crime were the Jewish community, with them being the victim of 18% of all reported hate crimes (Home Office, 2019). It is important to note that this figure could be higher, as it only includes reported hate crimes, many may go unreported for a variety of reasons.
With these statistics in mind, it is clear why the message of ending indifference from survivors of the Holocaust is so important. As a society, we need to ensure that we are tackling religious hatred, and other forms of discrimination, so that we can prevent the horrific events of the past happening again.