and those
So even the Holocaust has to be inclooosive now. I did not see that on the horizon.
Holocaust Memorial Day is about the holocaust of Jews under the Nazi regime. End of story. It’s not a grab bag. It’s not about Everyone.
Updating to add: Ok I overstated it – see Naif’s comment @ 2. It’s about the holocaust of Jews and others in the Nazi death camps. It’s not about post-Nazi genocides.
The truth is there should be a new Memorial Day, or rather a God damn it stop DOING THIS day, to recognize AND DISCOURAGE all these post-1945 genocides that keep happening. Have one of those days every month, or every day, since we can’t seem to learn.
At least they didn’t say “…and all the trans people targeted by the Nazis”.
The UN establishment of it has always been a grab bag. While the Resolution only specifically identifies Jews, estimating that 1/3rd of all Jews were killed, it has the text ‘along with countless other minorities’. It is not about Everyone, but it includes all who were in the death camps.
I don’t believe it’s necessarily bad to mention other genocides, or to attempt to make people aware of them, provided of course that the focus is not pulled away from the Shoah. Here, the brevity of the message makes the intent unclear. In a longer article or essay, would discussion of these other genocides not extend much beyond the short reference made here? Or would we see the same Holocaust-to-other-genocides ratio as there is here? The latter would clearly be problematic.
One thing that does upset me is the language used: “persecuted” and “affected”? Why not “killed” or “slaughtered”?
Also, I admit, I have an additional issue with a ‘comprehensive’ list that only includes those that pre-date the Shoah. If you want the ‘long list’ approach (which, I agree, should have it’s own day, or even better, an actual week that divvies the world into regions and talks about the genocides in each), you should include both the Armenian genocide, and the Native American/First Peoples genocides. The list as-written frankly makes it seem like genocide is something that happens ‘over there’.