Dear Friend,

As always, we hope this finds you all well and safe, and that you have had a successful and productive start to the new year so far. 

We have a jam-packed issue this month, filled with a variety of events and important initiatives. We very much hope you will join us in actively participating in and promoting these across your network.  See more details below!

In this edition (if viewing this on a desktop, click on each heading to skip to that section):

• #CantBeCompared: Stand Up to Rising Holocaust Trivialisation

• 17 February - "Re-examining the plight of the 'doubly cursed' -
  the Krankenmorde and its contemporary importance" - Online Event

• The 2022 commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day
  and the Liberation of Auschwitz - Online Event Recording
• "There is Neither Greek Nor Jew": The Heroic Duo who saved an entire Island
  from the Holocaust - Online Event Recording
• Fundraiser: Project to clean and restore the Jewish cemetery in Pilica, Poland.
• Articles of Interest

Each year, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a solemn moment to reflect on the grim lessons of the past and redouble efforts to ensure the horrors of the Nazi genocide are never repeated.

In recent times, a new disturbing trend has emerged - Holocaust trivialisation, or the misappropriation of imagery, symbols, language, and historical facts related to the Holocaust in discourse on unrelated issues.

This has been largely fuelled by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and protests against health measures enacted by governments to combat it. Yellow Stars of David, for example, have become an all-too-common sight at demonstrations worldwide, and the internet is awash with content minimising the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

The #CantBeCompared global campaign encourages people around the world to speak out against the dangerous threat of Holocaust Trivialisation, which has created safe spaces for more antisemitism and Holocaust denial over the past two years.

How You Can Take Action Against Holocaust Trivialisation:

1. Sign the global petition calling for Holocaust trivialisation to be treated as hate speech.

Add your name to the petition which will be delivered to leading decision makers and internet giants.

2. Speak out on social media and share the #CantBeCompared Campaign with your friends and family.  Use the power of social media to join the thousands around the world who are already standing up to Holocaust trivialisation

We hope you will join us in an ongoing effort to

Stand Up Against Holocaust Trivialisation,

protect our history and defend our future. 

Click on the video below to learn more about current trends of Holocaust trivialisation:

About the presenter

Michael Robertson is an Associate Professor of Mental Health Ethics in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum and a member of the Australian Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Scholars. He has published in the area of medical ethics, psychotherapy and the medical profession under National Socialism. His clinical work focuses on complex and historical trauma.

In 2019, he published with Edwina Light and Astrid Ley The First into the Dark - the Nazi Persecution of the Disabled. 

March of the Living Australia was proud to support the 2022 commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Liberation of Auschwitz, hosted by The Australian Holocaust Museum Alliance (AHMA).

Joining a moving speech by Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman OAM and a performance by Sydney Children's Choir, other notable speakers included Deng Adut, Edward Santow, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. As a key part of this event, Holocaust survivors participated in a moving candle lighting ceremony to ensure that the memory of the 6 million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust, is never forgotten.

We warmly invite you to view the recording of this deeply moving event by clicking on the image below. 

The Holocaust devastated the Greek Jewish population. The Jewish community of Thessaloniki, one of the oldest in Europe, was destroyed, with only a tiny fraction surviving World War II.

On the island of Zakynthos, however, all 275 Jews were saved, thanks to the courageous efforts of two men: Mayor Loukas Karrer and Metropolitan Dimitrios Chrysostomos.

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, March of the Living Australia was proud to co-sponsor this special online presentation hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), through which we honoured the memories of Loukas Karrer and Dimitrios Chrysostomos as "Righteous Among the Nations", and connected their heroism with the modern-day fight against antisemitism.

We warmly invite you to view the recording of this deeply moving event by clicking on the image below. 

In 2019, our Adult March of the Living delegation had the distinct and unique honour to attend and participate in an inaugural memorial service for a Jewish mass grave recently discovered in Pilica, Poland, organised by Eyal Liebermensch (Israel) in honour of his grandmother and the other Jews of Pilica murdered and buried in that mass grave.

As the first and only delegation of MOTL participants (from anywhere in the world) to attend this special service, our participants have often commented in the years since on how incredibly moving it was, and how it was without doubt one of the 'stand out' moments from the program.

And so, it is with great honour and pride that we share the below 'call to action' from Eyal:

***

"We will not forget our past" - The Jewish Cemetery in the town of Pilica

The cemetery cleaning project and pruning of trees that damage the cemetery's gravestones is planned for mid-February 2022.  This project will be carried out through a special landscaping company, volunteer students and sponsored by the Mayor of Pilica.

The date of tree pruning is limited in Poland until mid-March, and therefore the project is limited in time execution.

In the ancient Jewish cemetery in Pilica, 330 tombstones have been found to date, the oldest of which is 152 years old.  Since the burial of the last Jew in the cemetery and the liquidation of the town's Jews in 1942, no treatment or maintenance has been carried out in the cemetery. 

The project will last about one month, and will include tree pruning and general cleaning of the cemetery under the management and supervision of Marcin Bergier, local history teacher and my dear and special friend.

The success of the project requires fundraising for a total amount of AUD$5,000, and here I appeal to each and every one of you personally to contribute, and with your help, we will succeed in this important task.

***

Eya's Great Grandfather, Rabbi Abraham Liebermensch, is buried in this cemetery.  However, there was in fact a second Jewish cemetery in Pilica which was destroyed and is now covered by a parking lot! And so,  it is of utmost importance that the remaining cemetery be restored and maintained without delay so as to honour the lives of those who rest there forever more.

We warmly invite you to click on the button below to donate to this fundraiser by Eyal - any amount, however big or small, will make a substantial difference!

Here is a selection of recent articles and videos from around the world, many of which we have shared across our social media over the past few weeks:

• A president's personal Holocaust story
• 100 Jewish cemeteries in Poland restored by volunteers last year
• A glimpse of Jewish life before World War Two
• A musician's project sheds new light on artistic life in the Terezín concentration camp
• 'Book Smugglers' exhibit at Holocaust Center explores Lithuania town's quest to save its culture
• 'A lost Jewish history reclaimed': New digital archive reveals pre-Holocaust world

• i24 News: YIVO Makes Archives of Yiddish Life Available Online

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Once again, we would like to wish and your loved ones a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous new year.  We greatly look forward to being in touch again next month! 

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