Holocaust Memorial Day

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by Wise1, Dec 15, 2004.

  1. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

  2. laufer

    laufer Senior Member

  3. James Daly

    James Daly Senior Member

    We had a free day at the D-Day Museum on Sunday with poetry readings, talks by an expert on race and genocide (one of my old lecturers) and other stuff. Very well attended.
     
  4. Steve G

    Steve G Senior Member

    Remembering the holocaust

    On Holocaust Memorial Day, Hampshire based Kenny Ayres represented the local Gypsy community at The Holocaust Memorial Day Service at Havant cemetery, Hampshire. Read what he had to say:

    [​IMG]

    Kenny Ayres, representing the British gypsy community, with the Mayor of Havant, Cllr Jackie Branson to his right, makes a reading at The Holocaust Memorial Day Service at Havant cemetery, Hampshire

    " Good afternoon my name is Kenny Ayres, my wife’s name is Olive but to everybody we are known as Kenny and Margaret. We have come here today as representatives of the British Gypsy community. I thought that doing research on the holocaust would have been easy. As we all presume that we know what occurred during that time. Listening to news reports and what we have learned through history. But how wrong was I.

    World war 2 officially ended in 1945, but for the holocaust victims it still goes on.

    When I first started investigating the holocaust I found that there were actually 3 camps at Auschwitz working separately. The area for these camps were chosen due to the easy access by rail.


    In the 4 ½ years of Auschwitz:

    1,300,000 people were sent there.1,100,000 were put to death there of which 71.000 were Polish political prisoners.1.500 were Soviet prisoners of war.21000 were Gypsies. 1.000,000 Jews and out of those people 200.000 were children and 250.000 mentally handicapped and disabled children.

    Auschwitz 2 known as Birkenau was the largest of the extermination camps, when in full production they assassinated and cremated 20.000 people a day, that’s 140.000 people per week.

    Auschwitz 3 known as Monwitz which served as a labour camp.

    All Auschwitz camps were run by the Nazi parties paramilitary army. The SS.

    One SS 20 yr old woman named Yelma Crazer was notorious for her cruelty. How could such a young woman be brain washed into enjoying the torture that she gave to fellow human being’s.

    All the figures which our history books have, Are only estimated. It’s not a true account. Many more people were killed.

    The camp commandant Rudolf Hoess testified at the Nuremburg trials that up to 3.000000 people died in Auschwitz. 6,000000 Jewish people had been exterminated throughout the 5 years of war across Europe. That’s 2 out of 3 Jews.

    Zyklon B is a highly lethal cyanide based pesticide. Which the SS first used as an experimental gas on 600 Russian POW's and 250 ill Polish inmates. This paved the way to use Zyklon B as an instrument for extermination at Auschwitz. This is only one example of the horrific ways of executions which they carried out.

    Adolf Hitler told the SS that if they didn’t exterminate the Jews. The Jews would later destroy the German people. How can one man turn the majority of a nation into evil monsters.

    We are so so lucky being British as we have never suffered as these people had.

    We don’t know what it is like to watch your mothers. Fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters got to their deaths. To the gas chambers. We don’t know what it is like to survive these horrific camps. To wake up from nightmares reliving all this again and again. My heart and prayers go out to everyone, even those which have have not been accounted for. This was a mass murder on a horrific scale.

    The world must come together to make sure that this kind of racism does not happen again. Ever!!

    We all must teach our children what can happen if you let it. That so many lives can be lost and for what? NOTHING!! "







    Found that Here: Remembering the holocaust
     
  5. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Steve,

    Thanks for posting.

    It can never be reiterated enough, the events that took place in these Death Camps.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  6. Capt Bill

    Capt Bill wanderin off at a tangent

    Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day, is marked on the Hebrew date of Nissan 27th. On this day, we remember the lives of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and the experiences of those who survive's its' horrors.

    The day of rememberance was chosen by the Knesset in 1951, and is recognized by most Jews around the world.
     
    Za Rodinu likes this.
  7. Roxy

    Roxy Senior Member

  8. Capt Bill

    Capt Bill wanderin off at a tangent

    so why dowe have two memorial days - anyone shed any light ?
     
  9. Roxy

    Roxy Senior Member

    Bill,

    I'm not sure. Here is the bumf from the HMDT web site:

    HMD has taken place in the UK since 2001. It was established at a meeting on 27 January 2000, when representatives from forty-four governments around the world met in Stockholm to discuss Holocaust education, remembrance and research. At the conclusion of the forum, the delegates unanimously signed a declaration. This forms the HMD Statement of Commitment which is used a basis for events and commemorations.

    Roxy
     
  10. Roxy

    Roxy Senior Member

    Incidentally, 11 April is the anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald.

    Roxy
     
  11. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Had a brief look at Wikipedia to see what they had on this subject and found the following

    The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which occurs on January 27, is the first universal commemoration in memory of the victims of The Holocaust. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 during the 42nd plenary session. On 24 January 2005, during a special session (Special website for the session), the United Nations General Assembly had previously marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust which resulted in the annihilation of 6 million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi German regime.
    January 27 is the date, in 1945, when the largest Nazi death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland) was liberated by Soviet troops.

    I also checked up in my copy of the Jewish Chronicle where an article by the Chief Rabbi concludes:
    Holocaust commemoration has spread far beyond the Jewish community. Britain and the UN have chosen January 27, anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation, as a day of remembering.

    The calendar in my local Synagogue magazine also gives April 11 as being Yom Ha'Shoah day.

    So there you are, some variance as to which day is the "official" day but none on the need to remember the actual events

    Lest we forget !

    Ron
     
  12. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

  13. Capt Bill

    Capt Bill wanderin off at a tangent

    Thanks Ron,

    I got the date from here

    Yom HaShoah 2010

    oops - I got the date wrong by a day, sorry
     
  14. tongablue

    tongablue Junior Member

    Yes, sadly the crimes against humanity that the Nazis committed against the Rom ("Gypsies") have been to quickly forgotten. I've long thought that the Rom word "Porajmos" (the Devouring or Great Devouring) is more accurate and more neutral than "Holocaust." But an atrocity by any name is still an atrocity.

    tongablue
    Holocaust Archives:
     
  15. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    'Untold Stories' will mark Holocaust Memorial 2011 (From Penarth Times)

    HOLOCAUST Memorial Day 2011 will be commemorated by an exhibition and a film premiere in the Vale of Glamorgan, all part of the ‘Untold Stories Holocaust Memorial Day 2011 - A First National Event for Wales’.
    The Vale of Glamorgan Council, in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government, Holocaust Memorial Trust, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre of Los Angeles and the Memorial Hall and Theatre Barry, have worked together to develop the programme for the event.
    People from across the country were invited to share their ‘Untold Stories’ to mark the national event for Wales.
    Art Central in Barry, the Vale council’s art gallery, is hosting an exhibition of the ‘Untold Stories’ that were submitted, including local and national stories, poems, photography, DVDs and art works.
    Young people tell of their great grandparents’ and other family members’ World War II (WW2) experiences and Sully resident Eileen Younghusband recounts her experiences as a WW2 V2 bomber spotter, alongside many other, moving and fascinating personal tales.
    The exhibition is open from January 11, to February 26, 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
    ‘Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny’ is the latest production by Moriah Films of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre of Los Angeles. The film’s UK premiere has been included in Wales’ national event and this will take place at the Barry Memorial Hall & Theatre on January 27 at 7.30pm.
    The film focuses on Winston Churchill’s years in the political wilderness, his early opposition to Hitler’s rule, his support for Jews under threat by the Nazi regime, his return to government and ascension to the Prime Minister’s office in 1940.
    Free tickets for the film premiere can be booked on the theatre website memorialhalltheatre.co.uk or by calling 01446 738622.
    At the premiere there will also be the chance to see the artwork ‘Journey Line’ by conflict and war artist Nicola Tucker, whose work has been greatly influenced by the heartbreaking tragedy and horror of the Holocaust that took place in Europe during the last century.
    For more information on the events visit the Vale of Glamorgan Council website Home Page
     
  16. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    Kent News :: Article :: Services to remember victims of Hitler's Holocaust

    Memorial services will be held across Kent this month as people of all faiths gather to remember the victims of the Holocaust.
    The genocide of six million men, women and children by the Nazis during World War Two continues to evoke horror across the globe, and on January 27 people will unite in grief once more.
    Ramsgate, Deal and Rochester are among the towns due to hold services for Holocaust Memorial Day, which has been held in the UK since 2001 and was declared an international event by the United Nations in 2005.
    "The Holocaust continues to have a lasting effect, all the way through to the second, third and fourth generations of Jewish people," said Godfrey Fischer, senior warden of Thanet and District Reform Synagogue.
    "It’s difficult to understand how humanity could produce someone [Adolf Hitler] who through hatred or fear could target one people for their own gain.
    "But it’s not just the Jewish community that has been affected. You also have to think about the relatives of Germans who were adults during the war, who have discovered what terrible things their parents or grandparents did.
    "The Holocaust has had an effect everywhere, yet awful things still happen in the world – I have no answer as to why."
    Hitler’s ‘final solution’ for occupied Europe was aimed at eliminating ‘non-Aryans’, including Jews, gypsies and the mentally and physically disabled. Political opponents of the Nazi regime were also targeted.
    Many were sent to death camps such as Auschwitz, where they were shot, gassed or starved to death, before being buried in mass graves or cremated on an industrial scale.
    In addition to marking the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – on January 27, 1945 – this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day will also remember the victims of more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Mr Fischer said it was important to raise awareness of the atrocities.
    "Children have an inherent grasp of what is right and wrong, and one hopes that is included in their school curriculum and taught by their parents," he said.
    "But unless events like the Holocaust are taught in school, how will they know what not to do in the future? If we don’t teach the difference between right and wrong, they can’t make that choice."


    Visit Home - HMD Trust for a full list of Holocaust Memorial Day events in the UK.
     
  17. Earthican

    Earthican Senior Member

    Holocaust or Shoah does specifically refer to the estimated six million Jewish victims of the Nazis. And it's good to have a Holocaust Memorial Day.

    Since the article does not make clear, I feel compelled to point out that the total civilian victims of the Nazis is estimated at least eleven million.

    Hope this is not a quibbling point. I feel people get confused. Just as there were no extermination camps in Germany; they were were all in Poland. There were many concentration camps in Germany where the victims were Jews and all other nationalities that died of forced labor, starvation, neglect and torture.

    Never Forget.
     
  18. Oggie2620

    Oggie2620 Senior Member

  19. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  20. ritsonvaljos

    ritsonvaljos Senior Member

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