‘Could it happen again?’

What has happened once may happen again, not in the same way but with similar results.

Looking back on the course of history, we can conclude that just one generation is enough for the experiences of the past to pass into oblivion. We know that the Holocaust was not the first extermination of so called ‘subhumans’. It was, however, the first to be given the name ‘genocide’ and see its instigators punished.

Under colonialism, the belief in the superiority of the white man flourished, and the murder of natives with impunity was the rule rather than the exception. A veritable extermination took place in German southwest Africa (now Namibia) at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Germans carried out great cruelties to get rid of more than 80 per cent of the native Herero people. Many scientists argue that Hitler later looked to this as a model.

People were persecuted and murdered with impunity, and it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that a young Polish law student by the name of Raphael Lemkin began to ponder that this should have legal consequences. But first, it must be given a name. He coined the word ‘genocide’ (the murder of a people) from the Greek ‘génos’ (people) and the Latin ‘cide’ (murder). He fought his entire life to see it accepted by the international community that genocide was a criminal act. Only after the Holocaust, in 1948, was this view adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Today, 149 countries are members of the convention.

Despite this, fairly soon a genocide was instigated in Rwanda and a few years later in Serbia. It became clear that threats of punishment were not enough to avoid it happening again. Today, we know that something else is needed — a change in the way we raise our children.

New generations must continuously be reminded of former crimes. Those who raise the younger generation, parents and teachers, impart this knowledge to their children and students with the help of history books, monuments, and museums. But the way in which it is passed on is very important. If knowledge only addresses the mind, it is easily forgotten. It must also reach the heart, where it can awaken emotional learning. There are still a few eyewitnesses who can speak about their own experiences. We apprehend the world both with the mind and with the heart. Recent research also ascribes the heart with an intelligence that can be trained, just like the intelligence of the brain.

It is the good example set by parents and teachers that develops the heart, that can raise new generations to embrace empathy, unconditional love, and a world without hatred.

Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left, and in order to try to prevent these horrors from happening again, our stories must be passed on. We already have a nominated day of remembrance, 27 January. I hope that this becomes a long-lived tradition, through which new generations can pass on the story and tell it in a way that reaches their listeners’ hearts.