Vital fact is omitted from plaque on Holocaust

Canada unveiled its first National Holocaust Monument with much fanfare recently. But the moment soon became an embarrassment for the government because of a glaring omission.

The monument’s dedication plaque made no mention of Jews.

No one seemed to notice the oversight until after the dedication of the $8.9 million memorial, which features six concrete triangles that form a diagonallystretched Star of David.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke at the monument’s unveiling Sept 27 before a crowd that included Holocaust survivors, the plaque said the site honored “the millions of men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust.”

But it didn’t mention Jews or anti-Semitism.

Trudeau’s political opposition seized on the lapse.

On Tuesday, the Conservative Party’s David Sweet, said publicly: “If we are going to stamp out hatred toward Jews, it is important to get history right,” the Guardian reported. He asked if Trudeau would be rectifying the “profoundly obvious omission.”

A slew of embarrassing headlines followed. “Canada forgets Jews at Holocaust monument,” blared the twitter feed of BBC News.

Although Trudeau wasn’t responsible for the plaque, it’s the second time he’s been caught up in a Holocaust commemoration gaffe. Last year, critics blasted him for speaking generically about hate and failing to mention Jews on International Holocaust Memorial Day.

The push for the National Holocaust Monument first came in 2007 from a University of Ottawa student who realized Canada was the only Allied power without a national memorial. There were smaller memorials, but “there was nothing that spoke nationally about the Holocaust,” Dov Goldstein of Lord Cultural Resources told Canadian Art.

Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind designed the monument.

During the dedication, Trudeau spoke of the monument as a place where “families can come together to learn, to ask those tough questions, to grieve.” He noted that Canada was among the first countries to officially recognize Israel. He also made a passing reference to the Canada’s decision in 1939 to turn away a boat of German Jews seeking asylum, short of the full apology that many people had wanted.

“We need to stand up every day to the cruelty, hatred and the indifference that made the Holocaust possible,” he said. “May this monument remind us to always open our arms and our hearts to those in need.”

Trudeau called the dedication “one of those all too rare moments when all parties come together.”

That moment didn’t long.

A new works. plaque is in last the