Liberation of Auschwitz, philosopher George Santayana, nazis, Holocaust's memory, duty of remembrance, genocide, Shoah, human consideration, moral consideration, concentration camps, UNESCO, Hitler, Second World War
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,' said the philosopher George Santayana, underlining the importance of the duty to remember to fight against the forgetting and perpetuation of past atrocities. Therefore, we shall not forget the Shoah, that is to say, the persecution and murder of six million Jews, organized by the Nazis and their collaborators from 1933 to 1945.
[...] Therefore, the two events celebrating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz raise essential political questions but also provide a means of counteracting anti-Semitism. These events highlight the major challenge of our society, that of writing and transmitting the history of the greatest crime against humanity. [...]
[...] Indeed, in recent years, a battle of remembrance has been waged between Russia and Poland. Each country is trying to impose an ultra-nationalist and biased reading of the Second World War, at the expense of the other. The Polish do not want to be portrayed only as resistance fighters or victims of a double barbarism – Nazi and communist – when the Russians perpetuate the amnesia of the German-Soviet pact. Therefore, the Polish President declined the invitation to visit Jerusalem, as the program included a speech by Putin without him being able to respond. [...]
[...] Some 200 survivors of the camp attended, many coming from abroad, all deported to Auschwitz as children. Three Germans of them were guests of honor at the German president's official residence in Berlin. Even though there are fewer and fewer of them every year, their incredibly touching testimonies remains essential to the survival of equality and freedom. The question of the transmission of memory becomes more and more acute every year: what discourse, what media? Humanity must face the fundamental challenge that is how to write History without survivors. [...]
[...] The latter took an industrial turn with the systematic deportation of all Jews to death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Each of the steps leading to the accomplishment of Hitler's doctrine is premeditated, orchestrated and segmented by a thorough division of labor. The latter, allows the massacre to be carried out efficiently and also enables officers to be desensitized towards their murderous actions. Finally, the racial dichotomy in rejecting the enemy outside the human and moral obligations is a culmination of the outburst of hatred against the Jewish people. [...]
[...] Hence our interest in the article on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Thus, the duty of remembrance is a crucial issue to transmit the Holocaust's memory to the generations that will soon live in a world without any survivors. However, today we are witnessing a rise in anti-Semitism, partly linked to the waning remembrance of the Shoah. We can, therefore, question the fundamental role of Holocaust remembrance in a world where anti-Semitism still occupies a mounting position. [...]
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