The Holocaust is the darkest and most terrifying chapter in human history. Defying definition, it has no equal and stands alone.
Six million Jews, including 1.5 million children, were murdered, not in the context of war, or over territory, or because of anything they did, but simply because of who they were. Millions of Roma, homosexuals, prisoners of war, political dissidents and individuals with disabilities also were exterminated.
If you were to recite the name of each of the Jewish victims — hunted, ghettoised, starved, raped, experimented on, tortured, shot, gassed — allowing for two seconds a name, it would take you 133 days to do so, provided you did not pause to eat, drink or sleep.
Forget the abstract statistics.
Close your eyes and imagine the indescribable pain and the inhumanity that those babies, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins witnessed and suffered.
Tomorrow, Jewish and non-Jewish communities will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the UN to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces.
Those solemn ceremonies remember the victims, and those who survived, and whose unflinching courage, determination and spirit are a source of inspiration.
The occasion also honours the Righteous Gentiles who risked their lives so others could live, and salutes the virtuous who fought and gave their lives to defeat the brutal regime.
Read the article by Dvir Abramovich in The Australian.