HMD or In which I try not to sound like an Anti-semite

[lizziec]

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and I was reflecting on my drive back from Sainsbury's that I have real issues with this day being a "thing". The reason it is today is to coincide with the day that Auschwitz was liberated. That this is commemorated is not really the problem I have - it should be remembered. The issue I have is with there being a "Holocaust Memorial Day" in which everyone is told to remember the holocaust. The focus is on the Holocaust, and specifically (at least in the media) the Jewish element of it. Which in some ways it is fine - after all, the Jews were overwhelmingly the victims of the nazi mass murder policy, but millions of other people were also murdered during the Holocaust, including 3 million gentile Poles, not to mention the millions of Soviet "prisoners of war" and other soviet citizens (edit: an estimate found on an article on genocide on wikipedia suggest that between 16 and 17mn deaths attributable to the Nazis genocides in WWII of which 6-7mn are Jewish link). I feel a greater mention should be made of those.

My main problem though is that I feel it should be called Genocide memorial day. A number of quotes about HMD is that it's about action - remembering other genocides, thinking about racism and prejudice that still happens. If that is the case I feel it would be better served by being called Genocide Memorial Day, so that the Armenian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide and Darfur (among many others that have happened or are happening but that I cannot think of by name edit: Ben found a list on wikipedia), yet the focus is not on these others that have happened or are happening.

I dunno, that's what I think in a rather disorganised way. Hope I don't come across as Anti-Semitic, because that is not how I mean my comments. Argh. It's a subject that's irritating me a lot at the moment but is hard to talk about without sounding like a complete arse hole.

Comments

[barakta]

Sounds like a reasonable and sensible suggestion to me. I don't think it is anti-semitic to say that not only Jews were killed in the Holocaust. And indeed an increased awareness of other episodes of genocide, like Rwanda, Dafur and the ones we should but don't hear about.

[hopeful-rose.livejournal.com]

That's a really good comment to make, and certainly got me thinking. As tragic as the Holocaust was, and although it should be remembered, since the 1940s there have been many other kinds of mass genocide throughout the world, and they should also be remembered. As corny as it sounds, if we try to remember these things, then maybe we can stop them from happening in the future.

[bethanthepurple.livejournal.com]

I thought that HRD was somewhere among the kerfuffle of aids day, remembrance Sunday & white ribbon day? Hohum...

HRD is going to be focussed on Jewish stuff as long as Elie Wiesel is its primary spokesperson. He'd be called manipulative if he didn't have so much of the moral high ground. In the uni remembrances we had were very broad - lots of Darfur, loads of stuff about the Sikh massacres in the 80s, Rwandan, Slavic, & Iraqi deaths too. Lucky, I spose.