Today, April 8, is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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