The International Day of Holocaust Denial

January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, is designated by the United Nations General Assembly as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a time to remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This year, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, managed to make a vague Holocaust remembrance statement without mentioning Jews. I find this incredible, but this is the world we now live in, isn’t it? An act of remembrance has to be expanded to include all victims, everywhere, until it loses its meaning. We must think of all prejudice to all people and act more humanely.

This empties out what this day means and what is being remembered. I am aware that, right now, Holocaust and genocide and war and terror are all contested terms. They are contested within my own household. I am acutely aware that to say anything at all is risky. Either you don’t care about the indefensible loss of life in Gaza, or you don’t care about the hostages, or you don’t care about the country in which half the world’s Jews live. Well, I do care, but caring does not mean I have a better solution than anyone else.