23/02/2024
The Jewish Chronicle newspaper reports that Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has referred to the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day, at a service ahead of the official 2024 commemorations. Khan said: “The Holocaust is one of the most harrowing events in history, and it’s vital that we continue to hold events like this to ensure we never forget those who were killed and never forget where prejudice, racism and hatred can lead if allowed to fester unchecked and unchallenged." Holocaust Memorial Day, which is on January 27, also marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, when more than a million Tutsis were murdered in 100 days by Hutu extremists. It is a salutary point to remember that LGBTQIA+ people, gender non conforming people and sexual minorities have been swept up in every holocaust the world has experienced, from the well known Nazi ones, to the lesser commemorated such as those that took place during the ethnic cleansing of Yugoslavia during the Balkan conflicts of the nineteen nineties. In addition, sexual abuse, rape and punishment have been tools of those committing genocidal policies throughout recorded history. Holocaust Memorial Day is marked on 27th January because it was on that day, in 1945, that the Soviet Red Army entered the Nazi-fascist concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland, and liberated the survivors of one of the most notorious sites of mass death during the fascist occupation of Europe.
