Today marks 71 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp during World War II.
On the 1st of November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day, the 27th of January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a day dedicated to the commemoration of the memory of the 6 million Jews, 2 million gypsies, 250 000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9 000 gay men killed by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. This day allows us to reflect on the crime of the Holocaust. It presents an opportunity to ensure that future generations recognise the importance of this part of the history of humanity, and in so doing it helps to ensure that the inalienable rights of each and every one of us are never threatened in the way they were during the Holocaust.
“Let us create a world where dignity is respected, diversity is celebrated, and peace is permanent” – Ban Ki Moon (UN Secretary General).
During the early days of World War 2, the Nazis devised a system of identification known as Winkel. This made use of different coloured triangles that denoted the reason for the imprisonment of camp occupants. The triangles were sewn onto the prisoners’ clothes and were a means of both shaming and assigning specific tasks to the prisoners. Jews wore yellow stars, a perversion of the Star of David, criminals were marked with green inverted triangles, political prisoners with red. Homosexuals were identified with pink triangles, and these were made 2cm larger, so that guards could clearly see when a homosexual prisoner was approaching. The Nazis also used a series of letters which were sewn onto the badges to denote non-German prisoners. These letters were generally the first letter for the prisoner’s nationality in German.
The Third Reich’s system of labelling its "undesirables’ demonstrates how easy it was to let the non-labeled population of the time look the other way comfortably, whilst the Nazis went about their persecution. This is surely a lesson for nowadays as any modern democracy is truly tested by how it treats its minorities.
People worldwide, including millions fleeing war, continue to suffer discrimination and attacks. There are still over 70 countries where homosexual activity is illegal and studies continue to show a treatment gap for mental illness as compared to physical illness. Let us reflect on these inequalities and through the memory of the Holocaust, let us keep in mind what can happen when we stop seeing our common humanity.