Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration: Saturday, January 28th 2017

The text of my HMD presentation to the Wellingborough commemorative event held on Saturday January 28th 2017 at the Wellingborough Museum

Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to give this presentation to you today. It’s an honour and privilege and I hope that you find it interesting, but also challenging – for which I don’t apologise!

Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day which is commemorated on 27 January every year in commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland by Russian/Soviet troops in 1945 towards the end of the Second World War.

What was the Holocaust?

Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to kill all of Europe’s Jews. This systematic and planned attempt to murder all Jewish people in Europe is known as the Holocaust (The Shoah in Hebrew) and it is unique in Human history. The first time an attempt was made to eliminate a whole group of people based on their religion/race/ethnicity using the whole apparatus of a modern state and society.

The holocaust also resulted in the murder of millions more as a result of prejudice and hatred: homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people, Black people and other ethnic minorities, and political opponents of the Nazis.

From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used propaganda, persecution, and legislation to deny human and civil rights to Jews and other groups. They used centuries of antisemitism (hatred of Jewish people) as their foundation and new pseudo-scientific ideas of eugenics and the notation iof creating a “perfect human being”. By the end of the Holocaust, six million Jewish men, women and children had either perished in ghettos or through mass-shootings, in concentration camps and by gassing in extermination camps, such as Auschwitz.

Can you imagine what six million people looks like? It’s hard. That’s at least 200+ football stadiums (with 30,000 capacities each) or 100 towns the size of Wellingborough: women, men, children and older people, all murdered.

Ivor Perl

Today we are going to watch a short film clip, in which this man, Ivor Perl, who was born in Hungary, tells us his experiences during the Holocaust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxSlCzOB1IY

Watching Ivor’s film tells us about the stories beyond those statistics which are too huge for us to comprehend. It tells us that the Holocaust was the story of Jewish people being forced to move from their own homes to ghettos and camps. Of families being forced apart. Of the diseases like typhus which were allowed to spread as people were forced to live in appalling conditions. And his story tells us that half of Hungary’s Jewish population were killed in only four months in 1944, and that Ivor himself lost all but one of his 8 brothers and sisters, and both of his parents.

Ivor’s testimony also tells us that, for Ivor, the legacy of the Holocaust continues. He tells us that he fears people more than he fears God; it was people who played with him as friends one week and on the second week herded him and his family into a ghetto. He speaks of his daily reminders of things which happened to him in the past.

But he also speaks of his delight at moving to the UK and beginning to set up a life here, displaying so proudly in his home the pictures of his children and grandchildren. He tells us about his talks in schools and community groups, and that he feels if only one person hears his story and makes a difference, it was worth his while.

There are hundreds of us here today. On Holocaust Memorial Day we can reflect on the ways in which we can make a difference after hearing Ivor’s testimony. We can reflect on the particular questions that Ivor asked in the film.

What has it helped?

He asks ’What has the world learned since 1945?’ and, sadly, since the end of World War Two, there have been genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur where millions of people have been murdered simply because of who they are. This suggests the world has not learnt much. So what can we learn?

Our understanding of social psychology – how our brains work within a social context - might have some of the answers. This tells us that all human beings (you, me, and others) are all capable, given the wrong/right circumstances, of committing great crimes and horrors. Genocides and human rights abuses are not committed by evil people, but by people, just like you and me, doing evil thinks to other human beings.

• Playing the “us”/“them” game of stigmatising groups in society who we don’t like or blaming for all our problems. Or holding prejudicial or stereotyped views of such groups. We do this easily and almost automatically, without thought. We are easily seduced by the lies and misrepresentations of unprincipled politicians hungry for votes and power who tell us such groups are to blame. And what groups are in the frame in today’s world for such demonisation and hatred?  Mexicans (in the US), Muslims, refugees, immigrants, migrants from the European Union, asylum-seekers, benefit scroungers... you can add your own favourites if you like as more are added on an almost daily basis as we split up into our own clans and comfortable zones of exclusion behind walls, borders and fences – physical structures - but possibly even more damaging divisions in our minds and thoughts. Us and them... it’s an easy game to play, but with disastrous consequences.
  
  
• Inflicting harm on “others”, especially those who are stigmatised: being blind to their suffering or actively creating the conditions in which harm is done: harassment and hate crimes; our indifference or even hostility to hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are dying in the Mediterranean or freezing to death in Serbia or Greece, or living in dire conditions in concentrations camps at the borders of Hungary; our indifference to disabled people who are dying or committing suicide because of the dehumanising nature of our benefit system; physical attacks on Polish people, or Muslims, or indeed anyone who stands up for minorities and the vulnerable – such as MP Jo Cox.
  
  
•  But I hear you say: “we wouldn’t do that, we wouldn’t do harm to others”. But what would you do I ask?

How would I have behaved?

·        Ivor Perl asks us to reflect on our own actions or inactions. Do we/you stand by and watch, or do you say “no, this is wrong, it must stop!”? Do you actively get involved in challenging prejudice and injustices? Would you stand up or would you remain silent?

Ivor asked ‘how would I have behaved if I had been the gentile (the person who was not Jewish)?’ We can also ask ourselves ‘what would I have done if I had seen my neighbours forced out of their homes and onto trains or into ghettoes simply for who they were? Would I have stood by? Or would I have spoken out?’ The Holocaust was allowed to happen because the people with the power and the knowledge to stop it stood by and did nothing.

So in the contemporary world we need to ask: what am I doing?

Elie Wiesel

At the end of Ivor’s film he says ‘the only thing we can do is not answer hate with hate.’ Perhaps we can challenge ourselves to go even further.

As Elie Wiesel, another Holocaust survivor, wrote:

‘I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.’

Don’t stand by

With the words of Ivor Perl and Elie Wiesel in mind, with our understanding of human psychology in mind, I would ask you today to commit to not standing by.

When we see acts of injustice, don’t stand by. When we hear of intolerance, don’t stand by. When we see people being picked on because of who they are, don’t stand by. And when we see others act on their hatred, don’t stand by. And, if and when we see others “not standing by” and challenging, support them too – especially if we don’t have the courage to do it ourselves.

If we can all make the commitment today that we will not stand by when others face prejudice, perhaps we can help the world learn lessons from the past to create a better, safer future.

HMD 2017 Film

I would like to finish with another short film that has been produced for HMD 2017. It challenges us to think about how we can support those who face hostility today and create a safer society together.

http://hmd.org.uk/news/we-launch-our-film-hmd-2017

Small victory against the dehumanisation of those on benefits

Following my previous blog "No Pets. No DSS": the demonisation of a new group? I have been informed that the Estate Agents concerned have now withdrawn use of this phrase from their window adverts.

This was reported in the Herald and Post newspaper this week.

This small victory does, however, hide a bigger injustice that continues: the discrimination, by landlords and estate agents, against renting property to those on housing benefits, or in  receipt of other social security benefits. I remain concerned that the poorest in our society are now effectively being excluded from any form of housing provision except that provided by councils or social landlords, who are managing larger and larger waiting lists. Where will the poorest in our society live in the future?

Isn't this situation also a recipe for community conflicts? No doubt the hate-mongers in our society and populist politicians will look around for other groups to scape-goat and blame for the housing shortages.  No doubt some people on benefits, having been stigmatised themselves as "scroungers" and discriminated against, may be persuaded to blame other groups for their predicament as a consequence. On this weeks BBC Questiontime we had a taster: new immigrants from the European Union  (this time Bulgaria and Romania rather than Poland!). Historically many other groups were demonised in exactly the same way: the Irish, Jews, Black people from the Caribbean and Africa, Asians from Bangladesh and Pakistan ... all at one time or another blamed for causing housing shortages over the past 100 years or more!

A week-on-Sunday (January 27th) it will be Holocaust Memorial Day. If there is one single important lesson for today from the holocaust (and there are of course many lessons) it is that the stigmatisation and dehumanisation of any group in our society is morally and ethically wrong and can lead on to gross human rights abuses, if not actual genocide. I hope that during the commemorations this year we will make an explicit commitment to reject the demonisation of people on benefits that is taking place in our society at present and the scape-goating of "immigrants", where ever they may be from.

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Plus ça change (plus c'est la même chose)

"In the 19th century, Catholicism was regarded by many people in this country as thoroughly incompatible with Americanism. They saw it as a hostile foreign element that would subvert democracy. Today, a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court are Catholic, and they are taken to be as American as Mountain Dew.

We've come a long way in religious tolerance. Or maybe not. The belief that Catholics are irredeemably alien and disloyal has given way to the fear that Muslims pose a mortal threat to our way of life."

Steve Chapman on the bogus threat of Islamic law in the US: Chicago Tribune, 10 June 2012

This is equally so in respect of the UK - Catholics and non-conformists were the "enemy within" for centuries (until the 20th century); in the 20th century it was Jews...  people of non-Christian faiths ... those of Irish origins... "ethnic minorities"...  and now, in the 21st century, specifically Muslims. Whose next?

Plus ça change (plus c'est la même chose) - translation:  the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Do we never learn the lessons of history??

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Holocaust Memorial Day activities in Wellingborough

Following on from my previous blog, and highly relevant in todays context, it is the time of the year that we especially commemorate those who died during the Nazi Holocaust as we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day , which is on January 27th.

We must continually learn and re-learn the lessons from this humanitarian tragedy, particularly how easy it can be to scapegoat religious, racial or ethnic minorities and blame them for todays ills, or to turn on them in nasty, prejudicial and hateful ways. We must continual resist and challenge those who wish to turn one group of people against another based around human difference, in any part of the UK or across the world.

Activities in Wellingborough to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day:

Saturday January 22 at 10.30, Wellingborough Museum (near The Castle Theatre): Ruth Michaelis will be sharing her childhood expereinces of the Holocaust. Tickets are free but booking is essential. Telephone (01933) 276838

Saturday, January 22 at 12.30 and 1.30, Wellingborough Museum: "Hide and Seek". An interactive play that shares the stories of Holocaust survivors. Premiered by The Castle Youth Theatre. Free admission.

Sunday January 30 at 2.00pm in Swanspool Gardens, Doddington Road (by the Anne Frank tree): Wellingborough Council will be holding a remembrance event. Just turn up. For further details ring: (01933) 231986

"We carry on telling our stories because we were eye-witnesses. The most important thing is to tell people so this can never happen agaisn" Ibi Ginsburg, Holocaust survivor

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The nastiness, inhumanity and racism of the BNP

If anyone is in any doubt about the nastiness, inhumanity and racism of the BNP then their response to the disaster and devastation in Haiti and an issue closer to home, their attitude to asylum-seeker children in the UK, illustrates this in ways that can only shock.

British National Party Party leader Nick Griffin criticised the Haiti aid effort in the following way.

“Sending aid to rioting ingrates while our own people die is stinking elite hypocrisy”

The BNP’s legal officer went even further and attacked the humanitarian teams who set off to help in Haiti:

“I am frankly sick and tired of seeing media stories about simpering white people in some foreign hell hole run by the most violent and corrupt despots on the planet, swanning about before the cameras acting smug and superior over dealing with ‘johnny foreigners’ whilst ignoring the devastation, mass deaths and tens of thousands of dying people in their own countries.”

Fortunately the British people have responded to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti in precisely the opposite way, thus demonstrating the sort of compassion and humanity that I am proud of – one that recognises when we need to help people in dire need and whose need is clearly greater than our own, irrespective of the nationality or race or ethnicity of the person concerned. The reference to “johnny foreigner” makes me sick to my very being and strengthens my resolve to oppose a political party that can voice such distasteful and vile views.

The story closer to home illustrates the BNP’s attitude to asylum-seeker children who are being cared for by Northamptonshire Social Services. On Northants BNP’s blog (“Northants Patriot”) they had this to say:

“In excess of £2.5million has come out of Northamptonshire tax-payers income tax rather than their council tax to pay for the upkeep of just 112 children in the last financial year who should have been immediately sent back to their country of origin, or back to the last country they travelled through before arriving in the UK.” (my emphasis)

Whatever the issues are around asylum-seekers, the one thing that any decent, humane and caring person will agree with is that we should provide support to children who find themselves (for whatever reasons) in the UK without their parents or any other family member to care for and protect them. Most, if not all, of these children will be deeply traumatised, having been trafficked to the UK and dumped here, probably on or near the M1. Many will have been abused and injured during their journey here. The stories of how and why such children are here will be complex and complicated – but as children they are not to “blame” for the predicament that they find themselves in.

The BNP’s attitude to how we should treat such children in desperate need illustrates that racism and xenophobia are so central to their ideology that they are blind to simple humanity. They are not seen, by the BNP, as children, but rather as “the other”, “the enemy within”, the ones we hate, the ones we must dispose and get rid of as quickly as possible – we must eliminate them from our considerations and our care. Just one small step from, well, just eliminating them! So simple, so quick, so easy...

Such attitudes would lead directly to genocide and gross and disgusting human rights abuses if ever the BNP got even a whiff of power. For this reason, and this reason alone, we must stand up and aim for the defeat and humiliation of the BNP as a "political" party and the relegation of the ideas they stand for to the history books.

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Different times - same message of prejudice and hate - same need to stand up against it

Old Racism (1964). "If you want a nigger for neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour" was the 1964 slogan of Tory candidate Peter Griffiths. Griffiths won the election by a 7.2% margin. When he entered Parliament he was snubbed and widely condemned by MPs across the political spectrum and the Conservative Party nationally.

New Racism. Conservative Party election leaflet (October 2008). The "N" word may not now be acceptable, but for some nasty Tories (who have not really gone away since 1964) there is a new group they don't want as neighbours. It is reprehensible that some local Conservatives (including MP Peter Bone) are using similar scare tactics, misrepresentation and a new racism to generate fear and hostility against migrant workers from Eastern Europe. The fact that this Tory leaflet is almost identical to the line being pushed by the BNP (see below) is worrying. The Conservative Party, as it did in 1964, needs to clearly line up against such divisive and xenophobic ideas and challenge such prejudice and hatred - not line up alongside it.

There is always the temptation for politicians to play on popular fears and prejudices for short-term electoral gain. The BNP have this as the core of their political strategy to win power. I do, however, expect better from the Conservatives. I know the overwhelming majority of Conservatives are deaply unhappy by this approach. It is now time for them to stand up and be counted.

New Racism - British National Party (2008). For neo-fascists like the BNP the message has always been pretty much the same - they don't want anyone as neighbours who are Black, Asian, migrant workers or indeed anyone "foreign- looking". I think they may also have problems with anyone who opposes their ideas. The history of fascism is that they don't stop with their immediate "hates", but rapidly move on to everyone with whom they disagree. The poem by the German anti-Nazi Pastor, Martin Niemöller, sums this up:

When they came for the Jews I remained silent, I was not a Jew
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

It is incumbent on all of us from across the political spectrum to stand up against those who spead prejuduce and hatred against groups based on their colour, ethncity, origins or nationality at the first sign of its manifestion. If we wait longer, it may mean we wait too long.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2008

Wellingborough commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day 2008 with an official council-organised event in Croyland Park (at the Anne Frank tree), followed by an event of poetry-readings, a film and a Jewish choir held in the Council Chamber. The event in Croyland Park was officiated by Tom Partridge-Underwood, the current Mayor of Wellingborough. Issa Norton, a long-standing anti-racist campaigner and member of the organising group for the day, read out the HMD Statement of Commitment. Tony Som and his son,from the Jewish community, read the Hardith. Wellingborough's Member of Parliament spoke about the need to work for community cohesion and his dream of world peace. At the end of the event balloons were released with attached cards; on which people's dreams and aspiration for the future had been written.

All photos from HMD 2008 in Wellingborough

Could You Commit Genocide?

As events unfold in Kenya, with hundreds killed and thousands displaced by political and ethnic violence, the question of why people commit genocide, or “ethnic cleaning” or “gross human rights violations” (whatever you want to call it) returns. The list of recent atrocities continues to grow, although we entered the 21st Century hoping and believing that the phase "Never Again!" might actually become a reality under a new world order. However, it seems the struggle for human co-existence with ourselves and our differences continues to haunt us and is as elusive as ever. Or is it?

January 27th is a time to commemorate and reflect on the meaning today (and tomorrow!) of the worst 20th Century genocide, under the banner of Holocaust Memorial Day. Across Northamptonshire there are numerous activities taking place – mainly in Northampton and Wellingborough – which hope to shed some light on these important questions and issues for our time:
Events in Wellingborough can be found at: HMD 2008 in Wellingborough
Events in Northampton can be found at: HMD in Northampton

One specific free event, as part of this programme, is organised by Independent Socialists in Wellingborough on Thursday January 31st at 7.30 pm in the Victoria Centre, Palk Road, Wellingborough.

Under the theme “Five Steps to Tyranny: Could you commit Genocide?” there will be a showing of the acclaimed BBC documentary. The film tries, at least in part, to answer the following questions. What is it about human psychology that can lead us to participate in (or stand aside and ignore) the horrors of genocide or gross human rights abuses taking place around us? How can a person, who has known other people throughout their lives, suddenly turn on them and kill them in the most brutal fashion? What are the political, economic and social conditions that can lead so quickly to such a catastrophe?

Prepare to be challenged! Prepare to be shocked! This film will change the way you look at the world. It might even help us to prevent genocides in the future, by starting with the person closest to you – YOU! Now that would be a fitting contribution to the 21st Century that we can all make!