Letter of the Day | Human dignity justifies human rights

THE EDITOR, Madam:

“The horror of the extermination of millions of Jewish people and others of different faiths during those years must never be forgotten or denied.”- Pope Francis.

The Holocaust is arguably one of the darkest chapters in human history. The horrors and atrocities committed against the Jews during the 1940s were unspeakable. Oftentimes, we speak of the terror of the Holocaust; however, we must also acknowledge the heroism of many who risked their own lives to save the lives of many Jews. January 27, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp by Soviet troops. Over one million people were murdered in this vast complex alone, most of them Jews.

The date also commemorates the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) each year joins the international community in paying tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to counter anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.

The Holocaust (The Shoah in Hebrew) was the attempt by the Nazis and their collaborators to murder all the Jews in Europe. From the time they assumed power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis used propaganda, persecution, and legislation to deny human and civil rights to German Jews. They used centuries of anti-Semitism (anti-Jewish hatred) as their foundation. With the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 Germany invaded Poland, subjecting around two million Polish Jews to violence and forced labour. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the first months of the occupation. Shortly after the occupation Polish Jews were confined to particular neighbourhoods that came to be known as ‘ghettos’. Living conditions in these ghettos were appalling and subhuman.

This was a deliberate attempt by the Nazis to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews. This inhumane approach was repeated across Eastern Europe in other countries occupied by the Nazis. The Nazis persecuted Roma before and during the Second World War. In the genocide carried out during the war, the Nazis murdered at least 200,000 and as many as 500,000 Roma people. This event is referred to as the Roma Genocide, the Porrajmos, or the Samudaripen. In post-war Europe, Roma continued to face widespread prejudice.

DIGNITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The theme for Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2025 is “Holocaust Remembrance for Dignity and Human Rights”. The concept of human dignity is the belief that all people hold a special value that is associated solely to their humanity. Human dignity has nothing to do with their class, race, gender, religion, abilities, or any other factor other than them being human. Human dignity justifies human rights.

All genocides begin with insidious stages including propaganda, ‘othering’ and dehumanisation. According to Professor Gregory Stanton, genocide is a process that develops in ten stages that are predictable, but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The later stages must be preceded by the earlier stages, though earlier stages continue to operate throughout the process. The ten stages of genocide are: classification, symbolisation, discrimination, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, persecution, extermination, and denial.

The world must never be comfortable with the normalisation of prejudice and discrimination. It is only by being aware of the stages of genocide that citizens are better equipped to identify the warning signs and stop the process from continuing.

We all can observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day by sharing the truth regarding the Holocaust.

WAYNE CAMPBELL

waykam@yahoo.com