The Underground (In Syndication): Remembering the Holocaust, Part 1

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 02:12 PM PST

Auschwitz buildings today. From Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as an annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Why Jan. 27? It was on this day in 1945 that the largest World War II concentration camp, Auschwitz, was liberated.

Auschwitz, a network of three camps, was operated in Poland under German occupation from 1940-1945. It probably accounted for the death of over one million Jews. Among other well-known “death camps” were Dachau, Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen.

Claims that the Holocaust Didn’t Happen
Currently, there are claims being made that the Holocaust never happened. These claims are frightening and outrageous to Jewish people, and could not be farther from the truth.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. houses more than 85,000 Holocaust photographs, twenty percent of which can be viewed online. There are traveling exhibits and several stationary USHMM branches around the U.S.

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has archived 62 million pages of documents, photos, testimonies of survivors and other articles as proof of the Holocaust.

How/Why did the Holocaust happen?
Adolph Hitler intended to create the perfect Aryan race, eliminating those people who didn’t fit his description of “perfect.”

Beside the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, it is estimated that two million other people lost their lives for either assisting the Jewish people or being imperfect themselves.

Extending beyond his takeover of Germany, Hitler wanted to rule at least all of Europe, and perhaps the world. See a history with more details here at USHMM.

Do Christians hate the Jewish People?
Because some churches and Christian organizations either looked the other way or went along with Hitler’s bidding due to their own fear, some Jewish people are convinced to this day that Christians hate them.

However, Yad Vashem has a special memorial called “Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations” dedicated to Christians and others who lovingly and bravely assisted the Jewish people at the risk of their own lives (watch for Part 2 of this article for portraits of several Christian “Holocaust Heroes”).

There are many organizations of Christians and Jewish people working alongside each other today to make the way for better relationships between Christians and Jews, to erase rumors that the Holocaust never happened, and to stand against anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity.

Want to get involved in this effort? Here are a few such organizations:*
American Alliance of Jews & Christians
Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc.
Christians United for Israel
Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation (JAACD)

*(The Underground is not connected to these organizations, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of these organizations.)

Underground staff writer Sheryl Young is the author of What Every Christian Should Know about the Jewish People: Improving the Church’s Relationship with God’s Original Chosen Nation.