Obama remembers Holocaust, urges action in face of injustice

WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama used a ceremony recalling the Holocaust on Thursday (April 23) to urge Americans to avoid silence in the face of injustice. “During this season when we celebrate liberation, resurrection and the possibility of redemption, may each of us renew our resolve to do what must be done,” he said in an […]

WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama used a ceremony recalling the Holocaust on Thursday (April 23) to urge Americans to avoid silence in the face of injustice.

“During this season when we celebrate liberation, resurrection and the possibility of redemption, may each of us renew our resolve to do what must be done,” he said in an event at the U.S. Capitol that featured Holocaust survivors, rescuers and their families.

“And may we strive each day, both individually and as a nation, to be among the righteous.”


He noted that one of his predecessors, Dwight Eisenhower, “understood the danger of silence.”

When American troops liberated a Nazi concentration camp in Germany, Eisenhower, a general at the time, ordered Germans from the closest town and journalists to witness the “evil” that had occurred there.

“He understood that if no one knew what had happened, that would be yet another atrocity — and it would be the perpetrators’ ultimate triumph,” said Obama, whose own great uncle was part of the first infantry division to reach that camp.

The president called for countering modern-day acts of intolerance, including Holocaust denial, as well as other “scourges,” such as homophobia, racism and sexism.

“We have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy; to recognize ourselves in each other; to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take,” he said, “whether confronting those who tell lies about history or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda, those taking place in Darfur.”

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