Anti-hate laws vital to fighting racism, Holocaust event is told
TAOISEACH Micheál Martin warned that Ireland and the world must use education and anti-hate laws as strategic tools to fight extremism, racism and anti-semitism.
The warning came as the Taoiseach delivered the keynote address at Ireland’s Holocaust Memorial Day.
Organisers stressed that the commemoration was now more important than ever given the rise in far right groups across the world, soaring levels of misinformation and hate speech as well as an alarming surge in anti-semitism. Because of the Covid19 pandemic, the event was staged virtually.
The ceremony annually remembers the six million Jewish people and millions of other victims who were murdered due to their ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, political affiliations or religious beliefs during World War II.
Holocaust survivors and Irish residents Tomi Reichental and Suzi Diamond offered personal recollections of the Holocaust.
“Education is an important tool in deepening our understanding of the Holocaust and in fighting against racism and anti-semitism,” Mr Martin said.
“We are (also) currently working on a number of measures across all areas of Government designed to address hatred and intolerance in Ireland.
“The purpose of this work is to ensure that we can identify how Ireland’s law in this area can be improved, based on a clear understanding of the experiences of those impacted, while remaining in harmony with the very important right to free expression.
“In June 2020, the Government also appointed an anti-racism committee with a mandate to develop a new National Action Plan against Racism.”
He said a core element of this work will be to promote the inclusion of minority groups in Irish society.
“There are other examples of how we are fighting anti-semitism and racism – and this is a fight that will need to be sustained with energy and application into the future as new technologies and ever-evolving platforms provide new opportunities for old prejudice and hate.”
He slated anti-semitism and racism as “an ugly scourge”.
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland Chairman Prof Thomas O’Dowd said the event was more important than ever given world events. “Today, we are experiencing a surge in ‘misinformation’, an increase in anti-semitism and a prevalence of Holocaust denial and distortion,” he said.
Mr Reichental survived the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp and later settled in Ireland. “What we saw was hell on earth,” he warned.
Jonathan Philips (66) had his father’s entire family fall victim to the Holocaust. His father, Geoffrey (Günther), fled to the UK as a child after Kristallnacht in 1938 and almost his entire family were murdered in a concentration camp. “My father was very hesitant to talk about his experience while we were growing up. After his death we found about a hundred-odd pages of his account handwritten which I regret not knowing more about before.”
New Yorker Kayla Hertz (28) knows survivors and has been living in Dublin since 2014. “It’s up to people like myself who have this experience to keep their stories alive,” she said.