A few brief thoughts on #HolocaustMemorialDay and the 75th anniversary of the first Russian troops reaching Auschwitz murder camp (thread)
I find the idea that Auschwitz was 'liberated' an incongruous one. I understand what people mean but listening to the very few survivors (over 1m people were murdered there) I'm not sure they will ever truly be 'liberated' from the horror of seeing their families murdered
Both sides of my family reached the UK from Eastern Europe around 50 years before the Holocaust, probably fleeing the pogroms (anti-Jewish riots) which were part of the slow and steady build up to the Holocaust. They were refugees just like the many we now turn away
We say "never again" but do we really mean it? The Holocaust will not precisely happen again. Humanity always finds novel ways to outdo its great evils, but we watch blithely on as genocides happen in Bosnia, Darfur, Myanmar... Uyghur Musims put into 're-education' camps in China
One thing which has struck me in recent years as I read more about Europe's immediate post-Holocaust history is there was no great reckoning - yes, the Nuremberg Trials, but most perpetrators and enablers just melted back into European society. This is important to understand
Considering the Holocaust makes it even clearer how grotesque the idea that Europe will be worse off for being more multicultural or Islam is somehow a threat. Europeans perpetrated the worst crime in human history. How about showing humility and learning from other cultures
Often strikes me that WW2 is painted as 'good vs evil' but the reality is that UK/USA struck devils bargain with a totalitarian dictatorship (USSR) to defeat another one (Nazis). Eastern Europe suffered for 50 more years including Jews. Human history is messy and ugly.
It's so important to listen to survivors and victims of the Holocaust, but equally to imagine what we ourselves would have done in those years. I often wonder. The reality is most of us would have been perpetrators, enablers or bystanders. Because most people were. Be humble.
The modern human rights system was built from the flames of the Holocaust. It is imperfect but it's as good a bet as any on how to build societies which don't do genocide eachother.org.uk/human-rights-m…
Please have a listen to this podcast with @philippesands where he and I develop some of these ideas
