STANDUP AGAINST HATE: WE MUST LEARN THE LESSONS OF HISTORY TO AVOID THE HORRORS HAPPENING AGAIN
by Benjamin Zephaniah
Birmingham Post
January 23, 2009 Friday
UK
Genocide is an appalling crime against humanity that we hope will
never again be repeated. Today, as we approach Holocaust Memorial Day,
we might stop and reflect on the fact that it still has the potential
to be repeated and perpetrated around the world, unless we are on our
guard and understand that our actions today have consequences tomorrow.
The use of the term genocide can be problematic and contentious
but it shouldn’t disguise historical fact. One of the first modern
day genocides took place in Armenia, a part of modern day Turkey in
1915. This massacre of 1.5 million people, indiscriminate of age or
gender, is still not acknowledged as genocide by Turkey – long after
it took place. The United States did not recognise or act on the
events at the time and consequently Hitler admitted looking at the
Armenians and deciding that if they can get away with it, he could
also. If people don’t recognise something, its entire existence is
erased. It begs the question – if the United Kingdom and United States
had not recognised the Holocaust when it happened, would anyone think
it had ever existed? Who decides what we remember and what we don’t –
and does it mean that things we don’t remember or recognise didn’t
exist and don’t count?
My earliest recollection of hatred was in the late-60s when I was
eight years old and I still have the scar to prove it. I was walking
home from school in Hands worth, Birmingham, when another boy camecy
cling past with a brick in his hand. He hit me across the back of
my head with the brick and shouted ‘You black bastard!’, as he rode
off. When I got home, blood pouring from the back of my head, my
mother told me that some people in the world are just like that and
it’s something we have to live with. It was not even a consideration
to report the crime – it would have been ignored anyway. This incident
was the first time I realised I was different and that people actually
hated me for who and what I was. The scar on the back of my head is
a constant reminder of this.
People have to understand the past to see the future, they have
to start recognising the dangers of the present to prevent them
escalating into the Holocaust of the future. A close late friend
of mine recently told me a story of how, when she was very young,
she went to a political meeting in Austria with her mother and
auntie. After the meeting, the two adults were debating the event,
concluding that the main political figure, who was a radical speaker,
would never amount to anything and should just be ignored. That main
figure was Adolf Hitler.
When people don’t recognise these dangers, the problems start. Call it
innocent ignorance, call it optimism, however you want to look at it,
unless we recognise and stand up to these figures, who knows where
it can lead?My friend’s mother and auntiecertainly would never have
imagined what Hitler could go on to do in the years that followed
that meeting.
Bob Marley said in one of his songs ‘Well the biggest man you
ever did see, was once a baby’, and that is what interests me as a
writer. Hitler was once a baby looked on adoringly by people. He
then went on to become one of the most powerful men in history,
orchestrating the killings of hundreds of thousands of innocent
people. The boy who racially attacked me in Hands worth may have
gone on to abuse and physically hurt other people since. His attack
onmewas left unchecked so what’s to stop him?
It is so important that we have Holocaust Memorial Day in January
to remind us to acknowledge how bad we can be to each other, whether
it’s direct and intentional or indirect and unintentional.
All it takes is one discriminatory group to gain power and it can
all fall apart. We must join together to recognise where these acts
of hatred, regardless of size, can lead if left unchecked.
I urge all Britons to ‘Stand up to Hatred’ and recognise the impact
we can have on our future. By considering these things, next time we
see, hear, or experience any act of hatred anywhere and in any form,
we can make a better future.
Benjamin Zephaniah is a Handsworth born poet
THE HORROR OF HOLOCAUST
The word Holocaust comes from the Greek words holos, meaning
completely; and kaustos, meaning burnt. It is used to describe the
total destruction of people on a massive scale.
During the Holocaust in Germany, more than six million Jews, gypsies,
homosexuals and opponents of the Nazi regime were murdered in
concentration camps.
The mass murder, which Hitler referred to as "the final solution to
the Jewish question", wiped out two thirds of all Jews in Europe.
There were 39 camps throughout the Nazi territory. At the height
of the exterminations, more than 9,000 people were killed per day
in Auschwitz.
Germany was not the only place to suffer from a holocaust. The mass
murders in Rwanda, Cambodia and Armenia have also been referred to
as holocausts.
People have to understand the past to see the future, they have to
start recognising the dangers of the present to prevent them escalating
into the Holocaust of the future.