By: Kenneth Mokgatlhe
WHY DOES knowing about the Holocaust, apartheid, and genocides matter?
When more than 6 million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany, mostly in Eastern Europe, the world turned a blind eye to a historical event that would later shape our world. I am reminded of this, as next week Thursday (April 28) Jewish communities around the world commemorate those who were killed in the Holocaust.
There are people who feel that Jews must just “get over” the Holocaust like black people were able to get over slavery. Yet, black people have not yet even begun to talk about the pain and impact of slavery, colonialism or apartheid, never mind getting over it.
In fact, many Holocaust survivors were, until recently, unable to talk about their experiences, as it was too painful. Yet, others, swore that they would tell the world what happened, and have shared their story at every opportunity. These stories appear in the form of talks, books, radio, and television documentaries and are all reminiscent of this horrible event that shook the world.
In 1994, while the world’s attention was on two international events, namely the first democratic elections in South Africa and the Fifa soccer world cup hosted in Brazil, more than 800 000 Rwandans were being killed by Hutu extremists in an attempt to eradicate the ethnic Tutsis. The victims of these killings also included the political opponents of those in authority, irrespective of their ethnic association. The world watched and did nothing.
I met a Rwandan genocide survivor, Patrick Rukundo Tabaro, in 2016, at the Constitution Hill. He was meant to talk about the book he had written, titled ‘One Boy’s Journey’. Before he even began to talk about the book which described his life during the genocide, he broke down in tears and couldn’t utter a single word. To his relief, I assured him that we would read the book on our own and there was no need for an engagement. I realised that he was unable to talk as his wounds were still new.
We should not advise other people on how to mourn their pain, it is up to them to decide how and when they want to do it so that they heal properly from within. We should not be irritated when people are seeking to heal. Instead, we should be inspired to see people responding to their own history.
As South Africans, we have our own wounds that still need to be cared for. The world again just watched as black South Africans were subjected to the indignity and trauma caused by the apartheid regime before 1994. It only started noticing when the citizens stood up against the elite, unconstitutional government of the day.
Today, the world again is watching and witnessing the horrible war scenes caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has lasted for more than 50 days. Hundreds of people have lost their lives while thousands are displaced and homeless.
Learning about history should teach humankind to never repeat the mistakes that our predecessors committed in the past. We should learn from them and draw wisdom to avert crises that can happen in the present.
Hopefully, there will come a time when Jews, black people, gays and lesbians, Rwandan genocide victims, and others will get social justice for their sufferings.
We now know that if hatred goes unchecked in any country it could end up in tragic situations such as genocides or massacres like in Rwanda, Darfur, or Matebeleland in Zimbabwe during the 1980s. It is critical to learn from these cases and to try to avert any possible conflict.
This piece is being written at a time when there is a debate about immigration in South Africa. Movements such as Dudula Operation have initiated heated discussion among South Africans as well as foreigners in a country that has unfortunately experienced xenophobic violence every three years since 2008.
It is understanding these world events (Holocaust, apartheid, and genocide) that should help us to avoid another genocide but xenophobia has reared its ugly head again as we have seen in the murder of a Zimbabwean citizen who was brutally killed in Diepsloot, Joburg. We know that scapegoats are always looked for when a country is not doing well as when Nazi Adolf Hitler blamed Jews for everything.
That is why we should acknowledge the importance and need of commemorating the past in order to better prepare for the future, and above all, to find healing. A remembrance is held so those who sacrificed their beings and laid down their lives for us should not have done so in vain. That is why it is so important to honour, commemorate, and where possible celebrate those events which shaped our existence.
Jews should never “let go” but rather remember their families. The men women and children were slaughtered simply because they were Jewish. They will never “get over”. To do so would be an insult to those who died so needlessly.
Black South Africans should never be told to forget about apartheid. Rather, we need to find creative ways to remember our past so that we can celebrate our heroes and mourn our losses. We have much work ahead of us.
One of the most important aspects of history is that it enables us to better understand the present and prepare for the future. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana, ‘The Life of Reason’, 1905.
*Kenneth Mokgatlhe is an independent writer, social and political commentator.