The International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been marked in Ghana with a call on all to treat others with respect and dignity regardless of their backgrounds.
H.E Ami Mehl, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Ghana while addressing audience at an event to commemorate the day, Monday, said the happenings in Rwanda and other countries where lives are claimed is an indication that nothing has been learnt from the sad incident which hit the Jews between 1939 and 1945.
“The whole world should learn lessons from those atrocities. And I’m afraid things are not being leant. We can talk about Rwanda, we can talk about Syria. What is happening in Syria is very tragic. We have to remember to do something; to stop the hatred and create a world that our children can live in,” he said in a sorrowful tone.
The term ‘Holocaust’ – a word with Greek roots meaning ‘sacrifice by fire’ refers to the state-sponsored systematic murder of the Jewish population of Europe and North-Africa during the World War 2 at the hand of the German Nazi government, led by Adolf Hitler, and its collaborators.
Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis between 1939 and 1945, alongside a myriad of other groups they considered undesirable or dangerous, including the mentally and physically handicapped, the deaf, homosexuals, Roma or Gypsies, political dissidents or intellectuals, and many more.
On November 1, 2005, a United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/7 designated January 27 as an annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the victims. The Resolution establishing the International Holocaust Remembrance Day urges every member nation of the UN to honor memory of Holocaust victims, and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide.
A remembrance day observed at the residence of the Ami Mehl saw Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams, Founder and General Overseer of Action Chapel International; Mrs. Christine Evans-Clock, UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana; and H.E Christoph Retzlaff, German Ambassador to Ghana present to grace the occasion.
While Mrs. Evans-Clock urged all to confront the normalization of hate, Retzlaff said ‘never again’, a phrase used in reaction to what he describes as “an attack on human dignity” has become a fundamental tenet of Germany.
On his part, Archbishop Duncan Williams noted that “irrespective of the atrocities they [the Jews] suffered, they triumphed and was sure the protection of God on their lives is abound.
“We are not here to remember what happened to them but also to make sure that as long as we live, what happened will not happen again. We stand here to encourage and to strengthen our Jewish brothers and sisters and to let you know that as much as you went through difficult times for whatever reason, you’ve always prevailed and you’ve always won. And we are confident that in the years and decades to come, the invisible hands of Adonai will continue to strengthen and keep you strong,” he said.
