January 27, 2022 is the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the “Day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism” in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1996 and in the UN since 2005.
This day should be representative for the remembrance of the six million murdered European Jews, the Sinti and Roma, the forced laborers, the prisoners of war who were exposed to starvation, the victims of state euthanasia, the persecuted homosexuals as well as all those who resisted for religious, political or humanitarian reasons and therefore fell victim to the totalitarian state power. Just as remembrance is not “done” with one day, no such “final stroke” can be drawn under this part of German history. Any attempt to shirk historical responsibility is wrong and doomed to fail. The importance of remembrance is also reflected in the prevalence of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism in society. Since 2017, this stance is even represented in the Bundestag, and in the current pandemic situation, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are widespread, the denial and trivialization of the Holocaust is also central to the movement, partially through the wearing of yellow bandages with the “Jewish star” by the Querdenker.
Holocaust survivor, publicist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel said, “There is one right I concede to no one: that of indifference.”
The practice of remembrance follows from this, as does a commitment to tolerance, inclusivity, humanity, freedom and democracy, as historian and Holocaust survivor Saul Friedländer appealed to the Bundestag in 2019.
(lh)