On 27th January every year we are asked to remember the Holocaust and the theme this year is “Ordinary People”. It is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and recognise that genocide does not take place on its own; it is a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented.
Like most people, this is something I knew about, but it didn’t really come home to me until we visited the Holy Land. Just outside Jerusalem is a museum – Yad Vashem. This is a memorial to those who died in the Holocaust. There is among many other things; a box cart of the type used to move the Jews to various prisons, it is quite small; a room to walk around with the photos of all the children and their names being recited as you walk around; a library with all the names and details of the Jewish people as the Germans are meticulous in their record-keeping; and a perpetual flame in remembrance of all.
It had a big effect on me, and I will never forget it.
This should never happen again, but it has and still is in various countries over religion, race and in tribes, and is perpetuated in many instances, by ordinary people to ordinary people.
Can we pray that people will see how futile their actions are and learn to respect people’s differences and try to love one another?