January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which remembers and honors the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945. In 2005, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution to establish January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day to encourage its member states to preserve sites used by the Nazis during the Holocaust, such as concentration camps and prisons, and support the development of educational programs to ensure the Holocaust is never forgotten. The resolution rejects any form of Holocaust denial, and condemns all forms of “religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief” throughout the world.
The theme of this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day – “Home and Belonging” – encourages people to reflect on what these concepts meant to persecuted individuals during the Holocaust and its aftermath. How did victims of the Holocaust adjust their ideas of “home” and “belonging” as the Nazi party began to define – through legislation, campaigns of disinformation and hate speech, and state-sanctioned acts of terror – who belonged and who could claim their country as home? How did those forced to leave their homes to hide or seek refuge navigate the concepts of home and belonging? In what ways did the meaning of home and belonging change for survivors in a world dramatically changed by war?
To learn more about International Holocaust Remembrance Day and for additional resources about the Holocaust, please click here and here.
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