International Holocaust Remembrance Day
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Langara College honours the memories of the victims of the holocaust. The +13 million victims and survivors of the Holocaust include Jewish people, who were targeted for extermination, as well as others persecuted on the basis of race or ethnicity (actual or perceived), religious affiliation, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and, where applicable, mental or physical disabilities. The philosopher Theodor W. Adorno stated, “poetry after Auschwitz is barbarism,” meaning there is no way words can accurately describe the horrors experienced by the victims and survivors of the Holocaust (also known as the Shoah).
This solemn occasion, observed on January 27th, marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp. As campus community members, our collective responsibility is to remember that despite liberation occurring 81 years ago, the impacts of intergenerational trauma and violence directed to these groups (Jews, Slavs, Political Prisoners, Prisoners of War, Poles, Serbs, Persons with Disabilities, Romani, Slovenes. 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals, and religious groups) still exist in the present. That although International Holocaust Remembrance Day serves as a reminder of the humanity’s darkest impulses, action and solidarity, even with those that are different than oneself, can stop hatred and uphold justice and dignity.
Please take this day to not only to remember and honour the lives lost or impacted by the Holocaust, but also to learn and reflect by engaging with community through local events through the organizations below:
