Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration 2007

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2007 encourages us to look at what we learn from the Holocaust about the consequences of exclusion based on people’s difference from us. It highlights the experiences of a variety of groups under the Nazis. It also explores the opportunities this history gives us to consider how we can create a society based on respect for difference. The theme involves several aspects:

History:

The theme explores how exclusionary policy towards the Jews, Gypsies (Roma and Sinti), disabled people, lesbian and gay people, and black people and other groups developed under the Nazis. It attempts to understand the consequences of the Nazi theories of racial purity within what has become known as the Racial State. It will identify how populist ideology led to different patterns of persecution, in which different institutions or professional classes within military and civil society participated – including health, police and the judiciary. In particular, it questions how ordinary bystanders reacted to the increasingly divisive legislation.

Reflection:

The theme questions what might have been done in the past to overcome the exclusion experienced by victimised groups – and to recognise the particularity of their experience. It reflects on the consequences for a number of individuals and groups caught up as victims of exclusion, and on what might have been done differently to avoid or alleviate the suffering they experienced. It also looks at the way people can face discrimination or exclusion because they are identified as belonging to a targeted group.

Action:

This theme encourages us to think about the lives of people marginalized and excluded in the Holocaust, in subsequent genocides and today, and what might be done to celebrate difference and create a culture of respect. It identifies that victims are never in the best position to defend their own victimisation and that the champions of change are those who are prepared to widen their ‘universe of moral obligation’ and consider the lives of others as a part of their own life. The theme explores how individuals and communities might contribute to this in a meaningful and practical way.