Calgary to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Posted Nov 18, 2019 3:15 pm.
Last Updated Nov 18, 2019 4:41 pm.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — The City of Calgary took a firm step Monday to memorialize one of history’s worst genocides.
“This will be an important day, on January 27, 2020, when the City of Calgary will formally recognize, proclaim and commemorate our first annual citywide International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” said Councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart.
Colley-Urquhart presented the motion, with members of Calgary’s Jewish community — including Holocaust survivors — watching from the gallery inside the council chambers.
The councillor said it was important to understand the roots and ramifications of racism and stereotyping in our society, and recognizing International Holocaust Remembrance Day can help ensure events like what happened during the Second World War do not happen again.
Council unanimously passed our joint Motion today on Combatting Antisemitism in Calgary, marking Jan 27 as the Annual International Holocaust Day. A huge thank you to the Calgary Jewish Academy and The Calgary Jewish Federation for coming down and showing your support. pic.twitter.com/2ILEkVfkzc
— Di Colley-Urquhart (@BigRedyyc) November 18, 2019
The date also marks the anniversary when the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated from the Nazis by Soviet soldiers in German-occupied Poland.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi remarked how some aspects of the motion were troubling, as it noted a large portion of young Canadians do not know how many people died in the Holocaust and one in five were not aware of it happening at all.
“It’s much too easy for us to think of that as a piece of history, something that happened in the past,” Nenshi said. “Yet, hate crimes are up sharply. Religious bigotry of all kinds, anti-Christian bigotry, Islamophobia and particularly antisemitism are things that we see in our community every single day.”
Nenshi said it is important to show that council will stand up for the dignity of all people, no matter who they are, where they come from, or who they pray to.
After a short video was also shown in the council chambers including interviews with Holocaust survivors, the motion was adopted unanimously.
Applause then broke out in the gallery.
A second resolution in the motion that also called for administration to look into the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s non-legally binding definition of antisemitism was removed after an amendment.
That definition has received some backlash around how it may set the stage for prohibiting criticism of Israel and that country’s military actions and occupation against Palestinians.
