An exhibition of photographs and images cataloguing the plight of Jews under the Nazis in Europe has been opened at the Department of Justice.
The Holocaust in Europe – which opened on 23 January and runs till 10 February at the Atrium, 51 St Stephen’s Green – details impressions of life in the years before, during and after Hitler unleashed his inhuman treatment on the Jews, Roma and other minorities considered inferior by the Nazis.
The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland (Heti), the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris and the French Embassy in Ireland. It coincides with the both International Day of Commemoration on 27 January and the 10th anniversary of National Holocaust Memorial Day on 29 January.
Opening the exhibition, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the exhibition and commemorations are great examples of the things that can be done to raise awareness of the Holocaust.
“The importance of this exhibition is that it provides a global view of the Holocaust in Europe, starting with the growth of the Nazi movement, through the different stages of the persecution, inhumane treatment and extermination of millions of Jews, up to the Nuremburg Trials,” said the minister, who is Jewish.
“It also gives a picture of the political and military reactions of a number of states to this tragedy, which included the disinterest of some nations toward the fate of the Jews, and looks at reactions at an individual level including Jewish resistance and the Righteous among Nations.
The minister said it was “difficult to comprehend how a society could have allowed such unimaginable atrocities to occur”.
“We must remember that the Holocaust did not occur in a vacuum. These acts of evil emerged in one of the more modern and sophisticated societies of the era.”
- Meanwhile, the United Nations secretary general has urged the international community to take stronger steps to protect children.
In a special message to mark the International Day of Commemoration, which this year was dedicated to the child victims of war, starvation, disease or abuse, Ban Ki-moon decried any and all acts of “terror and evil” against children and called on people “to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust”.
He commented: “One-and-a-half million Jewish children perished in the Holocaust, victims of persecution by the Nazis and their supporters. Tens of thousands of other children were also murdered. They included people with disabilities... as well as Roma and Sinti. All were victims of a hate-filled ideology that labelled them inferior.”
Ban added that children across the world are still being orphaned by war or taken away from their families.
“Children are uniquely vulnerable to the worst of humankind. We must show them the best this world has to offer,” he said.
