As unbelievable, and disturbing as it may seem, the 20th Century was wrought with genocides. The three most well known, of course, are the Armenian Genocide of pre-WWI, the Jewish Holocaust of WWII and the Rwandan Genocide of the early 1990s. As the excerpt below shows, South Africa wants everyone to be aware of, and remember, how tragic these events were:
The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre was established in 1998 and is dedicated to Holocaust and genocide education and memory. The JHGC works widely in the field of Holocaust, human rights and genocide education. In 2007, the South African Department of Education implemented a new National Curriculum, which contains a strong human rights focus. Having operated from temporary premises, the JHGC has recently secured ground on which to build a permanent centre, which will be a centre of learning for young and old, from all walks of life, to come together to learn from the histories of the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda.
The excerpt from an article by Anthony Posner below presents an interesting and provocative thought knowledge of atrocities alone does not prevent future atrocities in the same realm:
The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre will not only focus on the extermination of European Jewry but will also contain a section designated to the Rwandan genocide. Moria Schneider writes in The South African Jewish Report: "The message the juxtaposition sends is stark: that the Holocaust and remembrance of it, did not prevent another genocide from occurring."
The only similarity between the genocide that took place in Africa and the one, many years earlier, in Europe is the fact that people were specifically identified and killed ( 800,000 Tutsis and 6,000,000 Jews). From a historical point of view, there is nothing else worth comparing and if one is encouraged to make connections, there is a danger that this will only be done whilst sacrificing the true causes and horrors of both.
Knowing about these atrocities isn’t enough - - you have to do something about them. Corrie Ten Boom and her family did. In her book, THE HIDING PLACE, she shares how during WW II they hid and protected Jews from the Nazis. Their home in Ha’arlem Holland that has been turned into a museum Take the virtual tour to learn more about the Ten Boom family and the Corrie ten Boom museum. We don’t have to wait for atrocities, however. Also like the Ten Booms we can pray - pray according to Psalm 122:6 - - pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
To learn more about the Center, go to:
To read Mr. Posner’s article in its entirety go here
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