Writings & Remarks

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 27, 2023

Tags Public Statements

Dear Members of the Hamilton Community,

In 2005, to mark the 60th anniversary of the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 60/7 designating January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The annual observance calls on us to remember the six million Jews and the millions of others who were murdered during the Holocaust and serves “to educate future generations about acts of genocide to help prevent their recurrence.”

“Education plays a fundamental role in understanding and confronting violent pasts,” according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “while at the same time developing the knowledge and values to prevent future atrocity crimes.” As members of a college whose mission is to prepare students for “lives of meaning, purpose, and active citizenship,” we should do all we can to counter “antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.” Such efforts are especially important now in light of growing acts of antisemitism and other forms of bias on U.S. college campuses and beyond.

David