Holocaust Memorial Day – are only Zionist Jews welcome?
JVL Introduction
Holocaust Memorial Day is 27th January and this year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. There will be commemorations throughout the world but, it seems, that Jews who stand for justice for Palestinians, who come from an antiracist perspective and who want peace for all between the river and the sea are not invited to the official events, even though some are Holocaust survivors themselves or the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Many have argued that Palestine should be remembered as well, that the whole point of HMD is not only to, rightly, honour those Jews, Roma, Sinti, Disabled people, Gay men and others barbarically murdered by the Nazis but to learn the lessons, to make “never again” mean something. Over the years other genocides have been acknowledged including in Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur and Bosnia but pre Nazi genocides such as against Armenians and, of course, Black Africans through the centuries of enslavement and many others are not.
Refusing to even invite organised anti racist Jewish groups seems especially reprehensible.
LL
This article was originally published by EUObsever on Mon 20 Jan 2025. Read the original here.
Guess who isn't invited to Europe's Holocaust memorials?
Loading article text…
This is very well put Arthur, and quite frightening. I find this hijacking of the Nazi Holocaust very serious. Also very concerned that the proposed Memorial for the green space near Parliament will also be a Zionist only space. The Holocaust Memorial Bill seems to be passing through Parliament at a pace. We must find a way to ensure either this is NOT built or that is includes ALL Holocausts
Following on from Sue Cooke’s comment about the so-called Holocaust Memorial Bill : We MUST stop this vast erection next to Parliament, blocking out the slavery memorial and taking the local park away from local people. Imperial War Museum has a brilliant Holocaust section. If a further building really needs to be erected then it should be on that site in Lambeth where there is far more space.
There is an advert currently in the cinema I go to by the Holocaust Remembrance Trust regarding Holocaust Memorial day. It mentions only Jewish victims as those who ‘we remember’, not the Roma, Sinti, gays, disabled, freemasons and others.
Today the Jewish Socialist Group held an excellent HMD event. It would have been great to have a little more time for discussion, but perhaps we can have it here. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust allows inclusion of Darfur but not Gaza, saying that only those genocides ‘recognised by the UK government’ can be commemorated. (As a matter of fact the 1980s gassing and bombing of the Iraqi Kurds is still not officially recognised as genocide and nor even is the 1915 genocide of 1m Armenians; possibly because Turkey is a member of NATO)…
But what I’d really like us to think about is a point made by David Rosenberg about three results of this official silencing and blanking of the genocide in Gaza. One: Paralysis, due to fear of speaking out. Two: Cynicism, mistrusting the existence of actual antisemitism. Three: Indifference. Under this count came boycotting HMD and setting up alternative Genocide Remembrance Day events. Actually I wanted to speak up in defence of these last strategies – I don’t think Indifference is the right description for such alternative genocide memorial talks as I have attended over time.
Remember how in the 2000s many local councils held very inclusive HMD events? As councils lost funding for equalities officers, and the official Holocaust ceremonial became more and more conservative (sometimes with a big C) and more tightly linked to Israel, many survivor communities have been forced to set up their own alternative events. Maybe we need to approach the organisers of such events so that we can join in.
I was also glad to notice attendees from a secular socialist Bangladeshi group. I’d like to see JSG and JVL make closer ties with them so we can hear their voices more clearly. They too are survivors of a genocide in Bangladesh, too often silenced.
I’m so angry. I watched the Holocaust Remembrance taking part in Poland, with world leaders, and thought ‘what hypocrites they are’, agreeing that this should ‘never happen again’, whilst they allow the atrocities by Israel that have taken 45,000 Palestinian lives so far, without objecting. They should be ashamed of themselves. Mike and I always attended the Holocaust Memorial Day service locally but I think there now needs to be a Genocide Memorial Day too for Palestine, and the fighting has only paused it appears as Trump has already said that he thinks Gaza should be flattened now and Netanyahu seems to still have a blood lust.