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International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

January 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the United Nations in 2005 to coincide with the liberation of Auschwitz, one of the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camps, on this same date in 1945. The concentration and extermination camps were the culmination of years of systematic persecution and discrimination fueled by hate speech, which eventually led, after the outbreak of World War II, to a policy of systematic extermination, forced labor, human experimentation, and other extreme forms of violence. Over 11 million people were killed, more than half of them Jewish, followed by Roma, other minorities, and groups resisting the Nazi regime.

Eighty years have passed since the liberation of Auschwitz. However, this day not only honors all those who suffered, lost their lives, or risked their lives to save others persecuted for their identity. It also serves as a reminder of the fragile balance of peace, of resistance to violence, and of the imperative need for dialogue to achieve peace. Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz, called for necessary humanization: “They will take even our name from us, and if we want to preserve it, we must find the strength within ourselves to act in such a way that, behind the name, something of ours, something of what we have been, will remain” (2003:39). With his trilogy, he calls on us to recover historical memory and reflect on it in order to build a present free from violence.

Peace is not only the absence of violence but an active process of dialogue to build fair, inclusive, and equitable relationships between individuals and groups. Dialogue is the most solid and lasting path to achieving peace. In the current moment, where extremism and hate speech are on the rise, it becomes essential. The lessons of a day like today remind us that the violence and dehumanization that progressively manifested at that time toward certain groups occurred with the complicity, indifference, or silence of many witnesses. Annette Wieviorka, the granddaughter of deportees, warns us for the present that, although the criminals were only a minority, Europe was full of antisemitism, which made such evil possible (Wieviorka, 1999).

Dialogue, scientific evidence to debunk hoaxes, and standing with the victims and those who support them are now essential to offer an alternative narrative to the hate speech of the present and build peace. In a world that faces major challenges for fraternity, there is a phrase that, responding to Levi and Wieviorka, accompanies me from one of those essential friends in life: “Rights are won through dialogue, including the initial disagreements and the sometimes very difficult process of reaching agreements while avoiding any form of violence. There are only two ways to organize human relations: dialogue or violence” (Flecha, 2022: 17).

References

  • Flecha, R. (2022). Dialogic Society. Barcelona: Hipatia Press.
  • Levi, P. (2003). Si esto es un hombre. Barcelona: Muchnick editores. (p.o 1958).
  • Wieviorka, A. 1999. Auschwitz expliqué à ma fille. Paris : Editions Seuil

Associate Proffessor in Sociology at the University of Barcelona.
Member of the Advisory Committee on Religious Diversity of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

By Lena De Botton

Associate Proffessor in Sociology at the University of Barcelona. Member of the Advisory Committee on Religious Diversity of the Generalitat de Catalunya.