International Holocaust Remembrance Day has occurred every January 27 since 2005 after the United Nations elected to do so.
The day mourns the six million Jewish people and millions of other minorities that were murdered by the Nazi party in the 1930s and 1940s. This day was chosen because, on January 27, 1945, the Red Army of the Soviet Union liberated the Auschwitz-Berkinau concentration and death camp near the city of Krakow in what is now southern Poland.
On this day, commemorations are made all around the world, especially at Holocaust-related museums such as Yad Vashem in Israel, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, to name a few.
Survivors of the Holocaust meet at Auschwitz itself in a solemn commemoration, and speeches are made at the United Nations. Israel has its Memorial Day later in the year but observes the 27th of January just as the other countries of the world do.
In commemoration of this day, the Jewish Student Union, led by Fifth Former Ian Rosenzweig and Sixth Former Daniel Kaiser, organized the creation of a poster board.
“It is a lot closer than people think, only 85 years ago, and people in our own community are still very closely connected.”
Ian Rosenzweig ’25
On the poster board is basic content about what the Holocaust was and what happened to European Jews during WWII. Rosenzweig felt that it was important to include this, because of “How misinformed and under-informed people are about the world and how many people believe the Holocaust either didn’t happen or wasn’t so extreme.”
Along with an outline of what happened, the JSU included statistics on antisemitic incidents that have taken place in the past few years, as well as images of Holocaust survivors related to JSU members.
The photographs are particularly important.
“It is a lot closer than people think, only 85 years ago, and people in our own community are still very closely connected,” Rosenzweig said.
The JSU feels that there is a lot of information that is not shared enough at Haverford, even in discussions about the Holocaust, and that putting it directly in front of people in the front lobby is a good start to spreading further awareness, but still not enough.
“There is never too much history that could be learned,” Rosenzweig added. Fourth former Joseph Kahana felt that, “I do not see a place currently for the Holocaust in the curriculum. It was very impactful for Jewish people and it was an extremely important event in the history of World War II, but I do not know if there is room for that in what we are currently taught.” It is important for the Haverford community to talk about it more than they do, but there is not appropriate space for that currently.
In light of the attack on Israel by Hamas-led terrorists on the October 7, 2023, the JSU felt that it was especially important to spread Holocaust awareness.
“Some of the first reactions that we saw from people who justified the massacre were charged with Nazi symbolism and rhetoric. There were swastikas at pro-Palestinian protests, people chanting gas the Jews,” Rosenzweig said. “That is not normal protesting.”
“I think that it is not so much that the Holocaust is ignored in schools, but that history in general is not taught enough.”
Nathan Kahana ’24
Protests against Israel have quickly devolved into protests against the Jewish community as a whole. Just as Jews were blamed for Germany’s loss during WWI by the Nazis, several people have held all Jews around the world accountable for what they incorrectly see as the oppression of the people of Gaza by the government of Israel.
Recently, there has been a sharp increase in anti-Semitism, especially on the internet.
Rosenzweig said, “I have been in contact with people who push directly antisemitic beliefs regarding Zionism and Israel as a whole.”
It is not so much that these people push anti-Semitic ideas and rhetoric online, but that there are places where people learn to hate Jewish people.
Rosenzweig said, “It is upsetting, but the bigger issue is that I feel I am put into the position of having to be an educator because there is a system that has failed to teach these people the truth.” Kahana felt similarly, as he said, “People are just incredibly ignorant about history. It is a serious problem that many schools do not teach enough history, so people think that the Holocaust didn’t happen. I think that it is not so much that the Holocaust is ignored in schools, but that history in general is not taught enough.”
As members of the Haverford JSU and Jewish people all around the globe mourn their family members that perished at the hands of the Nazi regime, many people fear the return of antisemitic beliefs not seen so prevalently since the rule of Adolf Hitler 80 years ago.
Now, more than ever, the Jewish community feels it is important to teach the history of their family and community and what they have been through