Most of us who are from the Judeo-Christian tradition recall this story with different names. We know the story of Abraham who offers up Isaac. The hero of this story Ibriham would be considered a violent and unfit parent. God just was wanting to know how strong the hero's faith was. From that time to this, the Semitic people have offered innocent animal substitutes as sacrifices, instead of human sacrifices.
Some scholars even see the whole people of Israel as the suffering servants.
Therefore the Holocaust which happened in our lifetimes bears historic testimony of the sad fact that these people have borne their grief and persecution with dignity and that their very survival as a people today is a testimony of God's faithful promise to all of us. In ancient times animal sacrifice cults developed to provide a way to expiate this perceived need to have substitutionary suffering. That is the message. All the major religion of the ancient world had elaborate systems of priests and public liturgies to insure the well being of the whole community through these sacrifices. Some Hindu sacrifices call for this passage to be literally carried out.