International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration

Of all the countries impacted by the Holocaust and the Second World War, few have as complicated a history as that of Poland. The invasion of Poland in 1939 was marked with swift brutality as the country was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. By the war’s end, six million Poles, including three million Jews, were killed. Poland was the location of all six of the Nazi killing centers at the heart of the “Final Solution.” And while there are more Poles listed as Righteous Among the Nations than any other country, Poland is also infamous for cases of local betrayal and postwar antisemitic violence to returning survivors. Recently Poland has announced that it will seek reparations from Germany in the amount of $1.32 trillion for wartime damages. It is also noteworthy that this recent claim was announced by the leader of Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice Party, the same party responsible for attempting to criminalize scholars who write about Polish participation in the Holocaust. Though recent trends are alarming, it is important to recognize a single political party does not represent the entirety of a county. Poland is a place of complexity and competing memory. In 2005, The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 — the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau — as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, the UN urges the world to remember the victims of the Holocaust and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, MCHE Historian Dr. Shelly Cline will discuss this chapter in Poland’s history, how it is remembered today, and the preservation efforts of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum to educate about the crimes committed on its site. Registration not required.