International Holocaust Remembrance Day, instituted by the United Nations General Assembly, is on the 27th of January (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Holocaust_Remembrance_Day).
Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the Jewish calendar.
But I remind you, my friends, that the Holocaust killed not only Jews. That of the 11 million people killed in the Nazi concentration camps, 6 million were Jews, and 5 million were:
- political prisoners
- leftists
- liberals
- communists
- pacifists
- conscription resisters
- deserters
- spies
- prisoners of war
- unionists
- royalists
- social democrats
- socialists
- Freemasons
- anarchists
- convicts
- forced laborers
- immigrants
- gay and bisexual men
- lesbian and bisexual women
- people of color
- Jehovah's witnesses
- Roma (gypsies)
- people with mental illness
- people with disabilities
- alcoholics and addicts
- beggars
- homeless people
- sex workers
- "race defilers" (people who had sex with the "wrong" opposite-sex people)
- those who couldn't work
- racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural minorities
- and more.
You and me.
Never again. Never forget.
I was privileged to know a number of Holocaust survivors growing up.
I honor them, those who are still living and the memory of those who have died.
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The Nazis used at least twelve distinct symbols in concentration camps. Here are two posters depicting them:
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Nazi concentration camp badges at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges and
Holocaust victims at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims.
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