Today was Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel the entire country stood still for two minutes to reflect on the single greatest atrocity of modern times.
I paused myself to reflect on the horror of those years, recalling the emotions I felt while struggling to comprehend the scale of the inhumanity when visiting Yad Vashem.
Today is a day we remember humanity’s capacity for prejudice, for hatred, for violence – but it is also a day where we can reflect on our capacity for love and for heroism.
We remember Sophie Scholl, Helmuth Hübener and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and we hope against hope we would have had the fortitude to stand up like they did.
There are still violent areas around the world where people suffer systematic persecution and the threat of violence – where Jews, Christians, gays and Muslims still live in fear. From the Sudan to Syria, the Central African Republic to Crimea.
I am making a small donation to an international non-profit working on these issues, and I hope you will consider doing the same.
When we say never again, we have to mean it.