TW: antisemitism, Holocaust violence Today is International #HolocaustRemembranceDay, which marks 77
TW: antisemitism, Holocaust violence Today is International #HolocaustRemembranceDay, which marks 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I grew up learning so much about its atrocities, as both of my maternal grandparents were forced to flee their homes for their own safety. I grew up learning about Kristallnacht, cattle cars, Anne Frank, concentration camps, propaganda, the Velodrome D’Hiver. I learned about the dehumanization of anyone who was considered a threat to the ‘perfect Aryan race’. I learned about my grandfather’s cousin, whose finger was shot off by a Nazi after he jumped off a train headed to a concentration camp. I learned stories of people who were at the camps, whose heads were forced to be shaven, whose clothes and shoes were removed, whose gold teeth and jewelry were taken from them, who were separated from their spouses and families and children. I learned about prisoners in the camps who were raped by Nazi officers at night and then sent back to work. I learned about the gas chambers and the people who starved and froze to death. All of this, again, just 77 years ago. I can honestly say that learning about the Holocaust is what drove me to activism. I told myself, ‘If I was around when the Holocaust was happening and I wasn’t Jewish, I’d wanna be the type of person who fought against oppression.’ Because while not everyone actively murdered people; there were enough who accepted what was going on without actively combatting it. We know that silence is violence, and if we want to be true allies we cannot remain silent in the face of oppression. So please - use your voice to combat hatred. It’s gonna take all of us [image description: a dead rose and baby’s breath stand upright before a white wall.] https://www.instagram.com/p/CZPAp0KuP5E/?utm_medium=tumblr -- source link
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