Motions

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (16:21): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes that 27 January was International Holocaust Remembrance Day; and

2. Rejects and condemns any form of racial discrimination and anti-Semitism.

In November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 27 January, the day on which Auschwitz was liberated, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Six million Jews were murdered in an act of unspeakable genocidal barbarism and so, too, were homosexual men, Roma gypsies, people with a disability and political dissidents, among others. Writer and philosopher George Santayana is attributed as penning the saying, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' This is often paraphrased as, 'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.' It is why we must remember.

It is therefore very important to have special days and events to mark historical events, including terrible events that are a blight on our claims to humanity. We know that in the camps the old or those with less physical capacity—that is, the most vulnerable—were killed first. People often ask: how could it have happened? How could people no different from ourselves have been involved, have stood by or have tolerated such atrocious treatment of a whole group of people? It is why we must remember.

The theme guiding Holocaust remembrance and education in 2021 is 'Facing the aftermath: recovery and reconstitution after the Holocaust'. It focuses on the measures taken in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust to begin the processes of recovery and reconstitution of individuals, community and systems of justice. Integral to the process of reconstitution was the accurate recording of the historical account of what happened before and during the Holocaust.

Challenging the denial and distortion of the historical events was interwoven into the processes of recovery and reconstitution. Then and now, people attempt to deny the events. Then and now, people try to justify the horrors inflicted on innocent people. Then and now, people use euphemisms, smokescreens and diversions to hide the reality of the suffering that occurred, which is why we must remember.

We are fortunate to have people such as Andrew Steiner here in Adelaide who will talk about their experiences. I spoke at the end of last year about his fine work in establishing the Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Andrew Steiner Education Centre, which will provide in-house education programs for secondary and tertiary students. It will teach about the consequences of prejudice, racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism and also about the consequences of apathy and silence, of being a bystander. I remind members of the words of one of the Adelaide historians who worked on the project, who said:

The history of resistance and collaboration in Nazi Germany reveals the extremes of which human beings are capable. Those who went along with the Nazis were ordinary people but so were those who resisted them. We get to choose what kind of human beings we want to be.

Which is why we must remember. I commend the motion to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.