International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust
Today marks the International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust. Remembering what happened, even if heart-breaking, is necessary to never forget the horrors committed by the Nazi regime and to ensure it never ever happens again.
Here is a beautiful and inspiring speech held by the Italian Senator Liliana Segre, Holocaust survivor, at the European Parliament in 2020 about the day: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-183542?lg=EN
The International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust
In November 2005 the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed the 27th of January the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
Every year since 2005, on the date in which the Soviet troops liberated the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of the Auschwitz-Birkenau, UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.
The impact of Holocaust on Women
Despite the Nazi regime targeted all Jews, both men and women, for persecution and death, it frequently subjected women, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to brutal persecution that was sometimes unique to the gender of the victims. Nazi regime also targeted Roma women, Polish women, and women with disabilities living in institutions.
Specific individual camps and areas within concentration camps were designated specifically for female prisoners. For example, in 1939, the SS opened Ravensbrück, the largest Nazi concentration camp established for women. Over 100,000 women had been incarcerated in Ravensbrück by the time Soviet troops liberated the camp in 1945. In 1942, SS authorities established a compound in Auschwitz-Birkenau to incarcerate female prisoners. At Bergen-Belsen, the camp authorities established a women’s camp in 1944.
During deportation operations, pregnant women and mothers of small children were consistently labelled “incapable of work.” They were sent to killing centres, where camp officials often included them in the first groups to be sent to the gas chambers. When women were not sent to killing centre, German authorities deployed them in forced labor under conditions that often led to their deaths. Jewish and Roma women were also subjects for sterilization, prostitution and forced abortion. In both camps and ghettos, women were particularly vulnerable to beatings and rape.
Why memory is so important
Remembering the Holocaust, even if heart-breaking, is necessary to never forget the horrors committed by the Nazi regime and o ensure it never ever happens again to anyone and under any circumstances. All the Holocaust’s witnesses are leaving this world and it is our job to keep alive memory though all the means we have.
History teaches and we must have learned the lesson.