Holocaust Remembrance Day 2016

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2016

  • 1/29/2016
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     The 27th of January marked the United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This Year we honoured the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.
     
    This year two separate events were held in Wellington, the first took place at Makara Cemetery and the second was held in Parliament.
     
    The ceremony at Makara was organized and sponsored by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, Wellington City Council, B'nai B'rith, The Council of Jewish Women and the Wellington Jewish Council. 
     
    This memorial day paid tribute to the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust. Therefore, it was only fitting that Jewish Youth Leader Benya Klapaukh spoke about the "Button Project" - this  project evolved in his small Jewish school where the students began collecting 1.5 million buttons, each a reminder of the million and a half children murdered during the Holocaust. At the end of the Remembrance ceremony all the children were invited up to lay a button in front of the Holocaust Memorial. 
     
    A second ceremony was held by the Hon. Chris Finlayson in Parliaments grand hall. At the ceremony the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand announce the winner of the Paul Seideman Holocaust Essay competition on "Children of the Holocaust." Joanne Pohe from St Joseph’s Maori Girls College read her beautiful essay aloud for all to hear. You can read the full essay transcript here: http://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/component/content/article/2-uncategorised/115-joanne-pohe-essay-2015
     
     
    Fighting genocide – UNESCO speaks out
    The UNESCO director-general’s message to the world for United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day is powerful and timely, said New Zealand Holocaust Centre director Mrs Inge Woolf today.
     Headed “Antisemitic propaganda and the Holocaust: from words to genocide,” Mrs Bokova’s words challenge us all to commemorate the Holocaust victims regardless of our origin or religion; to answer hate speech and propaganda with intelligence and reason; to stand against racism and antisemitism; and to use the media and education programmes to spread knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust.
     “Mrs Bokova’s powerful message is a spur to all Kiwis to see through propaganda and the falsification of history, because we know they lead to hatred and violence,” Mrs Woolf added.
     “As Mrs Bokova stated, the Nazi genocide of European Jews confronts us with the most extreme perversion – the negation of humanity in the human being. That must not be allowed to happen again.
     “The New Zealand Holocaust Centre is dedicated to educating New Zealand society, through Holocaust history and remembrance, that we need to oppose prejudice in all its forms, and guard against attempts to make any group a target, as happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany.
     “Although studying genocide confronts us with the worst of humanity, as Mrs Bokova says, it also inspires and empowers individuals to stand against prejudice and apathy.
     “The death of 1.5 million Jewish children has inspired Wellington children to collect 1.5 million buttons which we plan will be the genesis of a national Holocaust Children’s Memorial – for the children, by children.
     “We want New Zealand children to respect the diversity in our society, and see the dangers inherent in bullying; and also the dangers of being bystanders to the bad actions of others.