At a loss for words on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Marking 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.
The week leading up to today got off to a good start when it comes to defending and preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
That’s an odd sentence.
There is an absurdity to this day. Not the fact that we take a day to remember the events of the Holocaust - that is extremely important. What is, and always will be, beyond my comprehension is that we live in a world where the Holocaust not only happened, but where people continue to deny the destruction of a people and a world that took place, and use their denial to continue promoting hatred of Jews.
But this week, we had a win.
In December, I talked about the Sohier-Chaput trial that at the time was ongoing in Montreal. On Monday B’nai Brith put out a press release announcing that Sohier-Chaput had been found guilty of promoting hatred against Jews. In a judgment that is yet to be released to the public, Justice Manilo Del Negro held that the Antisemitic articles Sohier-Chaput wrote for the Neo-Nazi publication the Daily Stormer constituted a hate crime.
I have to stop.
I started writing this on Tuesday, and then my week got crazy and I picked it up again today. But today, as we take time to mourn the memory of the Holocaust, eight people were murdered in a Synagogue in Jerusalem.
And it feels wrong now, sitting here, to talk about this big win that we started the week with, when today, of all days, we were so viscerally reminded of how dangerous it is, and always has been, to be Jewish. I will find a time to talk about the Sohier-Chaput decision, but not today.
Today, I have been shocked to see statements about the Holocaust omitting references to Jews and organizations skipping this day entirely and moving right into their upcoming EDI events for February. And this week, that started out so positive and where it seemed like there was so much positive to say about the direction we were moving in, has very much gone off the rails.
Last year, there was a lot of discussion about today and Yom Ha’Shoah. Today, commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz, and the argument was made last year that this is the day the world gets to pat itself on the back for finally stepping up and doing something about the mass execution of Jews that was taking place. Last year, I rejected that argument. I said that it doesn’t really matter which day the larger global community chooses to commemorate the Holocaust, so long as they pick a day to do so.
But watching today get bungled. Watching it become yet another day when we will be commemorating more murdered Jews, I sort of see where they were coming from in not choosing the day the Jewish community have previously selected.
Every year, on this day, we say never again. But the last five years have repeatedly shown us that the action to make those words a reality for the Jewish community isn’t being taken, and the confidence in the broader community to stand up and say that today we are setting aside one day to talk about the results of violent Antisemitism isn’t there.
I had so much I planned and hoped to say today. And this isn’t it. But in the memory of my family who were murdered in the Holocaust; of families whose names I will never know that were murdered; for those murdered today in Jerusalem for the crime of being Jews. I have no words.
Bravo. You are so on point in your sentiments and so elegant in your writing. I am so appreciating reading your Substack, Sadie-Ray. I strongly encourage you to start submitting your writing widely across publications to grow your readership further. You're definitely writing at an impressive, professional level I suspect many others would appreciate also.