More than 70 years ago, as Soviet army forces pushed westwards through Poland and on to Berlin, they traversed regions completely destroyed by retreating German Nazis. In village after village, they witnessed the appalling aftermath of the brutality Nazis had inflicted on men, women and children.
And then, on January 27, 1945, the Russians arrived at the gates of Auschwitz and Birkenau.
What confronted them was evil on a catastrophic scale. Here, in the freezing mud and filth of the massive Auschwitz complex, were a few thousand Jewish and Roma prisoners, barely alive.
Of more than 1.3 million Jewish, Roma, Polish and Soviet people whom the Nazis transported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1944, at least 1.1 million were killed – most, in the hours and days after they arrived.
British forces were confronted by similar, unspeakable scenes when they arrived at Bergen-Belsen, as were United States troops when they got to Buchenwald and Dachau.
Yet, the persecution of the Jews had not been a secret anywhere in Europe. It had been the ruling Nazi Party’s very clear policy for more than a decade. It was enacted by stripping Jews of their citizenship, their cultural identity, their places of worship, by isolating them in ghettos, starving them into submission, and by murdering them en masse.
The world must never, ever forget.
And yet an extensive survey, published by the Gandel Foundation and Deakin University researchers on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, found one-in-four Australians has little or no knowledge of the Holocaust.
Nearly one-third of young adults have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust, which suggests there is a vacuum of some kind in the modern curricular.
As well, the Gandel-Deakin Uni survey indicated Australians generally had a poor grasp of this nation’s strong connections to the Holocaust through the survivors and their children – and their children’s children – who, thankfully, live among us. Yet they battle anti-Semitism and vicious slurs constantly.
We must ensure the Holocaust is not forgotten
Source: Philippines Alive
