By Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon on Stuff…
OPINION: A recent trip to the Holocaust Centre in Wellington was a cogent reminder to me how important it is to educate people about the horrors of the past, so they are not repeated.
Earlier this year, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed this sentiment when he described an alarming increase of hate around the world, including a resurgence of anti-Semitism and denials of the Holocaust.
Guterres said remembering the past was necessary to safeguard the future.
“We must never forget that the Holocaust could have been prevented,” Guterres said. “The desperate pleas of the victims fell on deaf ears. Too few spoke out, too few listened – fewer still stood up in solidarity.”
The UN chief also said no society was immune, and this was borne out in the latest Survey of Anti-Semitism in New Zealand last month.
Former chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman stated that “classic anti-Semitism has re-emerged – particularly during the pandemic – as Holocaust denial has become conflated with conspiracy theories and alt-Right politics”.
The Holocaust Centre’s chairperson, Deborah Hart, reiterated the need for education, pointing to the appalling misuse of Holocaust references at the Parliament protests.
Read the full article on Stuff here.
Meng Foon is the Race Relations Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission.
