International Holocaust Remembrance

Today is International holocaust Remembrance Day, and events for it have been taking place around Bournemouth. Stand up to Racism BCP had sent delegates on a study tour which focused on learning about what occurred in some of Poland’s largest concentration camps.

Throughout the delegate, the group visited three holocaust concentration camps, Warsaw, Krakow and Auschwitz which are the largest of the extermination centres. Lisa, the lead for the delegate, had a hard time getting through her presentation. She had to step away from the podium a few times to gather herself. Lisa had said whilst it’s not the only horrifying event of its kind, the magnitude is the horrifying part about it’.

A German local, Christel Lindner, came along to the event to show her support, she says ‘There are lives behind it, and there are tears. We need to do everything in our power so it doesn’t happen again,’, she wants to make her voice heard with the fact that ‘fascism and racism is on the rise, and it is not good for our society.’

Protests had been held over the week fighting for intersectionality, with hopes of bringing the community closer no matter the race, gender, class, sexuality, disability. There were also protests in support of Iran, after the events that took place there. Lisa holds these with the hopes to bring more awareness on these topics and to show how the community can come together.

Whilst many believed these types of conflicts could never happen, in today’s global conflicts some think history is repeating itself. Toni Jones , said ‘There is so much going on now that is so similar, talking about Ice and Palestine and what’s going on locally.’ Palestine is a topic Bournemouth has been very vocal about in their conflict against Israel, and many protests have been seen across Minneapolis against ICE.

Some see what’s happening today as a direct comparison of the events that led to the Holocaust. Remembering and reflecting on the Holocaust and how it started, Christel Lindner, believes ‘everybody should know the history… because the history made what we are today.’ Lisa had mentioned however ‘sadly there’s a lot of denial’ but the topic ‘can’t be forgotten’.