Remembering the Holocaust: Commemoration of those murdered by the Nazis

Top: Memorial plaque to those killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz, put in place in 1948 and removed in 1989. Bottom: Soviet Red Army liberates Auschwitz prisoners January 27, 1945.

Originally published on January 27, 2014 by TML Daily

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, the day in 1945 that Soviet troops liberated prisoners from the Nazis’ Auschwitz prison camp, the peace- and justice-loving people of the world join all those whose families suffered so greatly under the Holocaust, a program of systematic state-sponsored murder by the Hitlerite Nazis and their allies, the Italian fascists and Japanese militarists. The word “Holocaust” must be understood in its broadest sense as referring to the mass murder of all those who were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by the Nazis in Germany and the countries it occupied, especially the Jews and others targeted for extinction including the Roma and many Slavs as well as political opponents, particularly communists and resistance fighters. So too the Japanese militarists carried out the Nanjing Massacre and many other atrocities in China and throughout Southeast Asia, while to this day they owe reparations to the Koreans for the crimes committed against them.

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Genocide scholar condemns Israel’s ‘racist’ teaching of the Holocaust

Prof. Yair Auron’s thesis is clear: Israel prefers to avoid, repress and minimize the suffering of other peoples in the Holocaust and other circumstances, to perpetuate victimization and isolationism. Ofer Aderet in Haaretz 

A memorial to the murdered European Sinti and Roma who were persecuted as ‘Gypsies,’ designed by Dani Karavan, in Berlin, 2012 | AP

The cover of the new book by historian and genocide scholar Prof. Yair Auron features a drawing of five different-coloured patches: red for political prisoners; black for asocial and work-shy prisoners; pink for homosexuals; brown for Gypsies; and purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Only one colour is missing – the yellow patch for Jews. The book’s title, “The Non-Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime,” explains why.

This day in 1945: On Holocaust Memorial Day

Red Army doctor attends to Auschwitz prisoner after its liberation in January, 1945

Millions of people throughout the world have died as a result of genocide and crimes against humanity. The address by the Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper to the Israeli Zionist Knesset on January 20, 2014 illustrates how crimes against humanity are being manipulated for an ulterior and self-serving political agenda, in his case to criminalize opposition to Zionism and Israeli state terrorism as “anti-semitism” – a hierarchy of crimes has been established. On Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, 2009 Dr Hakim Adi, then Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Middlesex, gave a presentation at the African Caribbean Community Library, Battersea Library, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, United Kingdom. The meeting was part of the commemoration of this national day organised under the overall support of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a national charity formed in 2005. January 27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945, is commemorated as Holocaust Memorial Day internationally. (Originally published on this website on Janu 27, 2014)

Imbue with new life the clarion call of Never Again!

Prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp are liberated by the Red Army, January 27, 1945.

BY DOUGAL MACDONALD, January 27, 204

On January 27, 1945, the advancing Soviet Red Army entered the Nazis’ Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp, liberating more than 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill or dying. The prisoners were liberated as the Red Army was inflicting one defeat after another on the German troops, driving the Hitlerites steadily backward until the final demise of the Third Reich in Berlin on May 9, 1945. Recognizing the great significance of the liberation of Auschwitz, in 2005 the United Nations General Assembly officially designated January 27 as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the many millions of people murdered by the Nazis in their bloodthirsty quest for world domination.

Diplomatic appointments linked to anti-social offensive and privatization of public assets

Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion made a number of diplomatic appointments on January 16, two of which are noteworthy because the appointees do not come out of the foreign service but are linked directly with the Liberal Party and to the program of privatizing public assets as well as upholding monopoly right.

Australia’s day for secrets, flags and cowards

By JOHN PILGER

On 26 January, one of the saddest days in human history will be celebrated in Australia. It will be “a day for families,” say the newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Flags will be dispensed at street corners and displayed on funny hats. People will say incessantly how proud they are.

January 30 Day of Action in Hamilton: Together let us stand up for the rights of all

Saturday, January 30 — 1:00 pm
Keep Stelco Producing! Steel not Steal!

PDF

“The People vs U.S. Steel,” Hamilton Day of Action, January 29, 2011

Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main St. W.
For information: Local 1005 USW 905-547-1417
or Local 8782 USW at 519-587-2000.

Hamiltonians and workers from different sectors of the economy from different cities in Ontario are joining steelworkers and pensioners in Hamilton to make the Hamilton Day of Action on January 30 a success. The last day of action was held in Hamilton five years ago, on January 29, 2011, at a time when U.S. Steel had imposed a phoney lockout to extort concessions from steelworkers. To its credit, Local 1005 USW launched a campaign under the theme The People vs. U.S. Steel to uphold the interests of the Stelco workforce and pensioners as well as Hamilton and Canada itself.