On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

 


 

 

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. On this international Holocaust Remembrance Day, let's memorialize this atrocity as a harbinger, an omen, a warning, as many of the posts on the Guardian's live blog of this occasion remind us. One million people of Jewish descent were murdered just at Auschwitz alone. Wrap your mind around that statistic, and then remember that behind the number were living breathing human beings whose lives were snuffed out. The survivors have undoubtedly experienced a lifetime of PTSD, but also have been among our most powerful witnesses to the very worst of what humanity is capable. I've had the opportunity to speak with survivors of Auschwitz and other similar camps. Their stories are not pleasant but need to be heard. If you never had a chance to visit with someone who lived through that atrocity, there are other resources that are digitally available. 

Even within the nearly six decades spanning my own life, I've met survivors from any of a number of atrocities, ranging from the killing fields of Cambodia to the brutal totalitarianism of post-1979 Iran, and on and on. If you know people who have escaped a situation in which they were systematically singled out and persecuted simply for existing, listen to their stories. Heed their warnings. The reason I say that is because the impulse that led to the Holocaust is, at minimum, latent practically anywhere we look. If we accept that as a given, we at least can understand that there will be periods where the sort of authoritarianism required to produce gross human rights abuses is ascendant. We are apparently undergoing one of those eras. Our actions now will define us for future generations. 



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