Andrew Chapman looks at the background to Holocaust Memorial Day and related links on the internet

January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day, is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

This year is the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the concentration camp set up by the Nazis in southern Poland in 1940. A memorial museum at the world heritage site tells the grim story.

This occasion was first marked in 2000, as part of the Stockholm Forum on Holocaust Education, an international conference promoting awareness of holocaust education and human rights.

The Taskforce for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research was also promoted in Stockholm. This body has 16 member countries, represented by both governmental and non-governmental bodies.

Declaration

Members are committed to the Stockholm Declaration which, in summary, asserts: 1. The Holocaust fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilisation. 2. The magnitude of the Holocaust must not be forgotten. 3. The international community shares a responsibility to prevent any further atrocity of this kind.

The Holocaust may also be referred to as the Shoah. There is a certain controversy over the use of the term 'holocaust' (and, for that matter, genocide). The word 'holocaust' itself dates back to Middle English, and was used to denote sacrifice by fire. The word was later extended to mean any wholesale massacre or destruction.

The term was first used in the specific context of the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis in the Second World War, in 1944. In some countries, laws have been passed to prevent any other use of the word. The term remains controversial in other contexts of oppression.

It is estimated that at least six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime. Historyplace.com has a timeline of events documenting the Nazis' massacre of the Jews.

There are many resources on the internet to help people remember these horrific events, as well as Yad Vashem in Israel and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the United States. There are other Holocaust museums across the world.

As well as remembering the victims of the Holocaust of the Second World War, Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity to reflect on other victims of mass genocide and to educate people so that lessons may be learnt from the past.