Why Remember?

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. Today, Survivors will lay wreaths and light candles at the so-called Death Wall at Block 11 to mark 70 years since the camp's liberation, and remember those who never left.  Human Rights and Holocaust organizations worldwide mark the event and distribute educational materials.

Genocides have continued to happen well into the twenty-first century and while they start in different ways, they start with the idea that human rights don't apply to everyone. Awareness of human rights and speaking out to ally with groups that are marginalized is the best way to honor the memory of all of the victims of genocides.  

Here is an index (with links) of genocides worldwide: 

• • • 2.2.1 Africa
      • 2.2.1.1 Belgium/Congo Free State
      • 2.2.1.2 Zulu Kingdom
      • 2.2.1.3 German South-West Africa
    • 2.2.2 Americas
      • 2.2.2.1 Argentina
      • 2.2.2.2 Haiti
      • 2.2.2.3 Mexico
      • 2.2.2.4 Peru
      • 2.2.2.5 United States
      • 2.2.2.6 Newfoundland, Canada
    • 2.2.3 Asia and Oceania
      • 2.2.3.1 Siberia
      • 2.2.3.2 Vietnam
      • 2.2.3.3 Japanese colonization of Hokkaido
      • 2.2.3.4 Qing empire
      • 2.2.3.5 Australia
      • 2.2.3.6 New Zealand
    • 2.2.4 Europe
      • 2.2.4.1 France
      • 2.2.4.2 Ireland
        • 2.2.4.2.1 War of the Three Kingdoms
        • 2.2.4.2.2 Great Irish Famine
      • 2.2.4.3 Russian Empire
• 3 Twentieth century
• • 3.1 World War I through World War II
    • 3.1.1 Ottoman Empire/Turkey
      • 3.1.1.1 Armenian
      • 3.1.1.2 Assyrian
      • 3.1.1.3 Greek
      • 3.1.1.4 Dersim Kurds
    • 3.1.2 Soviet Union
      • 3.1.2.1 Decossackization
      • 3.1.2.2 Holodomor
      • 3.1.2.3 Polish Russia
      • 3.1.2.4 Chechnya
      • 3.1.2.5 Deportations of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians
    • 3.1.3 Japan
    • 3.1.4 Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe
      • 3.1.4.1 Holocaust
      • 3.1.4.2 Non-Jewish victims
        • 3.1.4.2.1 Soviet Civilians
        • 3.1.4.2.2 Croatia
        • 3.1.4.2.3 Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
        • 3.1.4.2.4 Romani people
        • 3.1.4.2.5 Disabled and mentally ill
    • 3.1.5 Expulsion of Germans
    • 3.1.6 Dominican Republic
    • 3.1.7 Republic of China and Tibet
  • 3.2 1951 to 2000
  • • 3.2.1 Australia 1900–1969
    • 3.2.2 Zanzibar
    • 3.2.3 Guatemala 1966–1996
    • 3.2.4 Pakistan (Bangladesh War of 1971)
    • 3.2.5 Burundi 1972 and 1993
    • 3.2.6 North Korea
    • 3.2.7 Equatorial Guinea
    • 3.2.8 Indonesia
      • 3.2.8.1 East Timor
      • 3.2.8.2 West New Guinea/West Papua
    • 3.2.9 Laos
    • 3.2.10 Argentina
    • 3.2.11 Ethiopia
    • 3.2.12 Iraq
    • 3.2.13 Tibet
    • 3.2.14 Brazil
    • 3.2.15 Democratic Republic of Congo
      • 3.2.15.1 Hutu
    • 3.2.16 Somalia
    • 3.2.17 Sri Lanka
    • 3.2.18 Srebrenica

And finally, our video on why it matters: