Yom HaShoah

April 27-28 mark Holocaust Remembrance Day or Yom HaShoah.  The official prayer for the day is:

Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have bourne be their forgiveness.

All around the globe people will light candles and say prayers to remember the more than six million people who were killed in the Holocaust.  That is all well and good, and needs to be done, but it doesn’t really address the unfulfilled promise the world made to the victims and survivors,  that this would never allow such a thing to happen again.  We said never again and then we went about our business and the unthinkable happened again and again and is happening now.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted in 1951.  Since then, at least 20 instances of genocide have been perpetrated while outsiders have watched idly by.  The 1994 Rwandan genocide stands out for many because of the sheer, brutal efficacy but we don’t pay much attention to the fact that the war in Rwanda didn’t so much end as move next door (to Congo).  In Hotel Rwanda, Joaquin Phoenix tells Don Cheadle, “Americans will say, ‘that’s terrible’ and then go back to eating their dinners.”  That’s what we do when we see atrocities in Syria, Sudan, elsewhere.

The bottom line is that as varied as the people and the circumstances surrounding genocide appear, the path they take is the same.  In 2006, Genocide Watch published “The Eight Stages of Genocide,” which are:

1. Classification
2. Symbolization
3. Dehumanization
4. Organization
5. Polarization
6. Preparation
7. Extermination
8. Denial

The word genocide and the convention to combat it stemmed from the work of one man: Rafael Lempkin.  Before him, there was no way to describe much less prosecute the crime and it shows how much one person can do.  Steven Spielberg announced today that he is teaming up with the University of Southern California (USC) to open a new Center for Advanced Genocide Research.  This center will look into the causes of mass violence and ways to prevent them.  This is how you really honor the victims and heroes of the Holocaust.

By: Alyson Chadwick

Alyson Chadwick is a political/news junkie and New Yorker transplanted to Washington, DC and currently working in Florida. Her career has included work on five presidential cycles, both sides of Capitol Hill, the 2012 Democratic Convention, Clinton White House, United Nations and multiple local and statewide campaigns. She is also a sad Met fan, which could be the most redundant sentence ever.