by Michael Deqel

Created on: May 18, 2008   Last Updated: June 07, 2008

"Shoah Remembrance Day" Why the holocaust should never be forgotten

[note: this is a proem, pros-etry, a prose-poetry essay, an experiment in genres;
shoa(h) is the Hebrew / Jewish word for the Holocaust]

Genocide continues around the world in our time (Darfur, East Timor);
genocide happened in other times,
before the holocaust (North America, Rome);
we have already forgot the Shoah (Holocaust), in some ways,

when we've failed to apply its lessons.
That is perhaps why genocide continues, even today.
Even after the horrors of the Shoah.
So the holocaust should never be forgotten
because it has not stopped (really)
as long as genocide continues-

Rwanda.
Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia).
The Balkans.
Darfur, Sudan.
East Timor.
Somalia.

This is only the famous list.

And don't forget the Western passage of the slave trade and pogroms from centuries ago: genocide began in the haze of human memory.

And don't forget the First Peoples in North America.

This writing is about not forgetting.
Not forgetting is acting against.
Not forgetting is doing. More than saying,
"Never again."
Not forgetting is Why.
Why the holocaust should never be forgotten.
The holocaust was genocide and genocide continues from the distant past to the foreseeable future.

We must stop it.

These words are about evil.

We must never forget the holocaust to stop evil.

But re-membering, not forgetting,
is also about finding meaning,
even in the darkest times.

The holocaust, the shoa should not be forgotten so that we, as human individuals and society, can find meaning. From genocide. And use that meaning. To stop evil.

Use the meaning to prevent human suffering.

Use meaning to oppose genocide.

This is about re-membering the holocaust and those who died.
This is about Mengele's bones. You know who Mengele was, don't you?
Remember Mengele. To stop his ghost,
don't forget Mengele.
This is about not forgetting.

This is about Eichmann's Trial. Eichmann, Mengele, the shadows of terrible planning, of horrible realization, of Nazi horrors. Don't forget. And don't forget that we, too, might act as they did. Remember. Maybe some of us already are acting, planning-all in the name of security.

Don't forget the holocaust so that you don't repeat it in the name of National Security.

On Shoah Remembrance Day, everything stops in Israel. To remember. Why?

This writing is why the holocaust, the Shoah, should never be forgotten. These words are about how to remember it, how not to forget. How to (re)member it.

This is about remembering.

If only for

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