Stephen Smith, director of the Beth Shalom Holocaust centre in Nottingham, who has been involved with planning the day, says he is disappointed that the service will not mention the failure of the British governments of the 1930s and 1940s to respond adequately to Nazi anti-Semitism. So the credentials of past British governments will also emerge, if not bolstered, at least unscathed. As well as the main national ceremony, the memorial day will involve activity in schools and special programmes on television. The idea is to prevent genocide from occurring in the future. But there is a savage irony in commemorating the post-war atrocities in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia, alongside the Holocaust.
Commemoration is more than mere hand-wringing only when it leads to resolve.
Often, it does not. If you have any related information or suggestions, please email them. Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News .