Remembering the Holocaust in Ireland

First published in Village magazine January 2005

It begins with the belief that those who are different are in some way lesser beings. It continues with the infringement of their liberties, restrictions on their freedom of movement, the denial or removal of their rights, forcibly removing them from their homes, their campsites, confining them to camps and ghettoes and increased efforts to erode their human-ness by inflicting any number of small indignities leading to ever greater indignities. Until finally one day, unfettered and unchallenged bigotry and hatred proceed to the next level- extermination.

In answer to an interviewer’s question on whether he believed the Holocaust could happen again, Primo Levi, perhaps its most eloquent survivor replied; “ The idea is not dead. Nothing ever dies. Everything rises renewed.”

Mass graves, concentration camps, the destruction of places of worship, the bombing of schools and residential areas, starvation, forced migration, mass rape these are the ultimate expressions of tyranny and bigotry, from Cambodia, Indonesia, Rwanda and Bosnia to Darfur- and yet after Auschwitz the world said, “Never Again.”

In 2000 the Irish government signed the Stockholm Statement of Commitment pledging amongst other things, “ to strengthen our efforts to promote education and research about the Holocaust and other genocides” and, “ to encourage Holocaust remembrance by holding an annual Holocaust Memorial Day.” The Statement also recognises that “humanity is still scarred by the belief that race, religion, disability or sexuality make some people’s lives worth less than others’. Genocide, anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination still continue.” It pledges signatories to, “ a shared responsibility to fight these evils.”

Three years after they had signed up to these pledges the Irish government had done nothing to meet their commitment in recognising the Holocaust. It was not until an ad hoc voluntary committee comprised of members of Ireland’s Jewish community and those who shared an interest in remembering the Holocaust organised a memorial event that leading members of the Irish cabinet sat up and took notice.

The first Holocaust memorial event in Dublin City Hall in 2003 was without question one of the most potent commemoration ceremonies to ever take place there. It did not focus on praising dead heroes or patriotic blood sacrifice. With the first Holocaust Commemoration a new tradition of remembrance was established wherein the common humanity of all is re-emphasised and the simple message conveyed that prejudice unchecked poses the greatest threat to that humanity.

All of the victims of the Third Reich are remembered during the event now in its third year.  The centrepiece of the commemoration is the lighting of candles in memory of the minorities that Nazism attempted to eradicate forever, the Roma community, people with physical and learning disabilities, people of African descent, lesbians and gays and Europe’s Jews. Candles are also lit for those who were murdered because of their political and religious beliefs, trade unionists, communists, Quakers, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others.

Each candle is lit by an Irish representative of those minorities. On behalf of the six million  Jewish victims, candles are lit by six of the tiny number of remaining survivors of the Holocaust living in Ireland. Several came as refugees via Britain on the kindertransport, the groups of children who were lucky enough to be evacuated from Europe by their families before the full terror was unleashed.  Two of the Irish survivors, Suzi Diamond and Zoltan Zinn- Collis met as small children in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were they were rescued after the liberation and brought to Ireland by an Irish Red Cross doctor, Robert Collis and his Dutch wife, Han who was a nurse. Ireland has very few Holocaust survivors because so few, so very, very few Jewish refugees were allowed to enter the country during the war or in the post-war period. Katrina Goldstone an Irish anti-racist activist who has documented Irish anti-semitism estimates that only 65-100 refugees were ever admitted.

At the 2004 Commemoration the Minister for Justice, Michael Mc Dowell publicly apologised for government predecessors of the 30s and 40s who denied refuge to those in such desperate need. This year, An Taoiseach, Bertie Aherne will also attend. An apology for the callousness of a previous government and official attendance at an annual remembrance event notwithstanding, there is little evidence to show that Irish officialdom has reflected on the lessons of the Holocaust in their current policies towards certain minorities, refugees and those vulnerable to bigotry.

Acts of omission in addressing racism comprehensively, indifference to the absymal provision of Traveller halting sites, the official feeding of public prejudice and paranoia in relation to immigrants and refugees as witnessed in the recent citizenship referendum, the scapegoating of those same immigrants for the absence of a coherent, transparent immigration policy, the refusal to allow asylum seekers the dignity of work, these are the responses of a government for whom the Holocaust is little more than an historical footnote.

Lynn Jackson of the Holocaust Commemoration Committee (Holocaust Educational Trust) is dedicated to ensuring that commemoration of the Holocaust is linked to the fight against racism,

“ The Nazi Holocaust is the extreme example of racism. It highlights where unchecked bigotry, prejudice and hatred can lead. It teaches us that we must all be mindful of the dangers of racism and protest in the strongest terms when we witness anti-semitism, xenophobia or any form of intolerance expressed in any of its manifestations.”

At the conclusion of the commemoration each year, Dublin City Hall resonates to the  Kaddish, the Jewish prayers for the dead. For those who died in the Holocaust rest and peace are implored for; “ the souls of all our brothers and sisters… who were butchered, murdered, slaughtered, incinerated, drowned, shot and strangled…at the hands of the Nazi oppressors.” The cantor’s voice rises and falls in a cadence of heart-aching clarity as he asks that, “ the master of mercy shelter them in the shadow of his wings for eternity and may he bind their souls in the soul of life.”   Amen.