Tag: Holocaust

Say “Never again” to genocide

Posted on by kathiemm

Today, April 8, is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Nazi concentration camps map
Image in public domain.

Although the United Nations General Assembly chose January 27 as annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the United States Congress established its own National Days of Remembrance, which are observed this year from April 7 to 14.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has declared this year’s theme to be “Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs.”

Please take at least a few minutes today to honor the victims and survivors of the Nazi genocide by watching the videos linked in this post. They are compelling reminders of what the U.S. and the other democracies did as the Nazis began their attack on Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other convenient scapegoats—that is, virtually nothing.

Occasionally students wend their way into my Psychology of War and Peace class declaring that the U.S. entered World War II to rescue the Jews—waving flags emblazoned with an appalling level of misinformation. “Never again” will not be achieved by Americans invested in the mythology that their government has always been the crusader for democracy, humanity, and…liberty and justice for all.

The films are also powerful reminders that genocides, a scourge on human society for centuries, continue to plague the earth. If we want to say “never again” to genocide, to what other factors do we have to say “never again”? Racism? Poverty? Revenge? Humiliation? Send us your suggestions.

Whatever our religion, ethnicity, or skin color, we can all do more to resist the forces that push us to hate, dehumanize, blame, and scapegoat others who are identified by people in power as our enemies.

We are all related. We are all one family.

Time for Cain to stop killing Abel.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Engaging in peace: A personal story (Part I)

Posted on by kathiemm

By guest author, Dorothy Walsh, a lifelong peace activist

My journey in understanding the importance of peace and nonviolence for the world and for myself began in the aftermath of World War II as I learned about the horrors of the war and the Holocaust. Dot at Peace Abbey

This experience led to my personal commitment to never be supportive of violent resolution of conflicts.

Traveling and hitchhiking as a student in Europe after the war, I found myself asking every German I met if they had known about the concentration camps and what happened to the Jewish people. No one would answer me except an old woman in a hostel in West Berlin. She said, “We all knew.”

During the Vietnam War, I became active with local people by attending rallies and by housing some of the activists who were away from their homes. As a young mother, I had limited opportunity to demonstrate against the war, but for the first time I called myself a pacifist.

My commitment to the practice of nonviolence has been a lifelong challenge as I learned that it took more than participating in demonstrations to be a peacemaker.

My education, focusing on the roots and causes of violence, came from the “criminals” in the prison who were my teachers during the 20 years I spent as a member of a chaplaincy team and later as a program director for men incarcerated for domestic abuse.

I was able to learn and practice trust. Several times I saw the fruit of this value in helping to resolve a hostage situation and to settle serious conflicts.

During this time I created a home for people coming out of prison. We were only three people with families and children, but we managed to run the Home of Reconciliation for several years and provide support for men who had nothing and nowhere else to go.

Dot Walsh

Importance of being intolerant

Posted on by kathiemm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPRudsBzBY
Following the mindless slaughter of the First World War, the failure of the League of Nations, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the unendurable losses of World War II, nations came together as the United Nations.

In the Preamble to the United Nations Charter, we find the words:

‘We, the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, … and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours…”

The theme of tolerance appears frequently in U.N. documents. At the urging of UNESCO, 1995 was declared the United Nations Year for Tolerance. The year-long campaign for tolerance and non-violence was followed by the selection of November 16 to be the annual International Day for Tolerance.

Tolerance means respect for differences, appreciation of diversity. It means liberating oneself from the chains of prejudice, the burden of discrimination,  and achieving freedom from hatred of others who happen to differ in skin color, religion, language, sexual orientation, and other human characteristics.

For peace and social justice to be achieved, tolerance for diversity must go hand-in-glove with intolerance for many barbaric practices that continue to create suffering and anger in today’s world, including:

  • Rape
  • Female genital mutilation
  • Torture
  • Violence against women
  • Violence against children
  • Violence against men
  • Murder, including capital punishment and war-time killing

Tomorrow is the day to show tolerance for other human beings and intolerance for inhumane practices.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Not in my name (Stories of engagement)

Posted on by kathiemm

Our guest author, Glyn Secker, is on the executive committee of Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) and was a lead organizer and captain of the Jewish Boat To Gaza last year.

I grew up with no faith and within no Jewish community, but with a deep commitment to human rights and justice. Searching for my cultural community, I became conscious that it had been buried by a fundamentalism that learned from history nothing but the very mindset of oppression through which it had itself emerged.

In the fight for human rights we should each choose the domain where we can be most effective. So for me, as a Jew, the title of our organization, “Jews For Justice For Palestinians” is an existential statement: its subtitle, “Two Peoples – One Future,” is a deep philosophical belief.

My family arrived in the U.K. as refugees from the pogroms in Poland and Romania. I live in London with Vanessa, who lost a generation of her family in the Holocaust, and our two sons.

I have been a lifetime campaigner for social justice and human rights:

  • Organizing and delivering printing presses to social democratic parties in Greece in 1974 prior to the fall of the military junta
  • Coordinating with social democratic parties in Czechoslovakia prior to the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the regime in 1982
  • Serving on the organizing team of the UK Anti-Nazi League in 1977 and the giant Rock Against Racism concerts in 1978.

I have been on fact-finding missions and solidarity work in Portugal in 1974, Algeria in 1978, Palestinian organizations in Lebanon in 1979, and Egypt in 1981, and I was a courier for social democratic parties in Turkey in 1982 following the military coup in 1980.

All of this prepared me to sail a boat to Gaza to breach the blockade and to say “Not in my name.” I  organized sailing our family boat to Gaza as a JfJfP boat in 2009, with hospital medical equipment provided at the ready by Conscience International, and the crew on standby.

This mission was postponed when Israel began impounding Free Gaza boats for the first time. However, in 2010, I was lead organizer and captain of the Jewish Boat to Gaza.

Glyn Secker