Remembering the Holocaust Today

 

Last week I mentioned that I follow the Auschwitz Memorial on Twitter. Auschwitz was one of the extermination camps of the evil Nazi regime which murdered 6 million innocent Jews during WW2. Each day the Memorial posts a photo, or several, of persons whose lives were snuffed out, sometimes when they were babies. I often take the few seconds to read the story of the person who was brought into this world in love and who deserved the fullness of life.

This is Holocaust Memorial Day, an opportunity to pause and remember those 6 million precious souls, human beings who died because of prejudice and hatred. This day is also important because we are now nearly 76 years past the liberation of the last concentration camp and there are few survivors still alive and a dwindling number of people on the planet with direct memory of that dark time.You'll notice that today is the 100th anniversary of the young woman in the photo who was only 22 when she died. This is also the anniversary of the liberation of 7,000 prisoners from Auschwitz. 

Auschwitz Memorial

@AuschwitzMuseum

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22m

27 January 1921 | A Czech Jewish woman, Růžena Buschová, was born in Prague. She was deported to #Auschwitz from the #Theresienstadt ghetto on 6 September 1943.

She did not survive.

It's also important to acknowledge the Shoah, or Holocaust, because of the persistence of anti-Jewish sentiment and conspiracies. The growth of the disgusting Q-anon conspiracy which has infected the United States includes hatred of Jews. Sadly, there are supposed Christians who drink at this poisoned well, the way some Christians did during the Hitler years. The attempted coup on Capitol Hill on January 6th included terrorists wearing clothing with hate speech slogans directed at Jews alongside banners proclaiming "Jesus Saves." These are people who disconnect from the Jewishness of Yeshua, Jesus. 

Canada is not immune to this  Only two weeks ago a Montreal synagogue was vandalized with spray-painted swastikas. Every year there are incidents of destruction in Jewish cemeteries and death threats. Many synagogues have security guards to protect worship services, something I would notice while walking close to our home in Halifax where we lived for a time.

We must continue to remember, to speak out against hatred in all forms, and to pray as Yeshua encouraged "that all may be one."