An essential remembrance

Our community needs no reminding of the Shoah. But that in no way diminishes either the importance or value of Holocaust Memorial Day, both to us and to everyone.

To us, it serves as an annual secular remembrance, which offers the opportunity to commemorate the victims but also to celebrate those who survived. And to others, who join us in that commemoration and celebration, it is an annual platform for education and reflection on the human capacity for evil, whether in Germany or the likes of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

It is precisely this breadth that gives HMD its strength — and which shows just why such a day is needed, and will continue to be needed the further away we get from 1945. 

As time progresses, the fewer survivors remain with us, one reason why it is so important that their testimony is recorded (as in the National Holocaust Centre’s new exhibition which we feature inside). But the legacy of the Shoah will remain with us long after its physical victims have gone.

A cumulative assault

Just another weekend, just another series of antisemitic incidents. A brick through a window. A pelting with eggs. A daubing with swastikas. Abusive graffiti.

Terrifying as the brick throwing must have been, taken in isolation they may seem a series of minor attacks. But the cumulative impact of such incidents gives them genuine potency and significance. And shows the scale of the problem.