On Jan 27, the world marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp operated by the Nazis in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. The anniversary was used to remember the inhumanity that mankind is capable of and the death of six million Jews and other minorities killed in Nazi concentration camps, as well as that of the survivors.

Yet, in Malaysia, the position of the Malaysian government seems to be that of denial. In school textbooks, there is absolutely no mention of the Holocaust , even though it is, in many ways, the watershed of 20th century history.

The fact that it happened in distant Europe is no excuse, since the point of studying world history is to study the history of mankind beyond our own immediate shores.

For the anniversary of Auschwitz, where over one million innocent people were murdered in cold blood, it is somehow telling that there was little mention of it in the local media. The government obviously has a problem with allowing the suffering of the Jews be known, and this position can very easily be regarded as being anti-Semitic.

Our government might not hold diplomatic relations with the state of Israel as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians, but this must not be allowed to spill into anti-Semitism and a denial of the Holocaust. Indeed, denying the fact of the Holocaust and being perceived to be anti-Semitic are merely counterproductive to a fair solution to the Palestinian problem.

The Holocaust was a brutal testimony to the inhumanity that man is capable of and this lesson is something which all mankind must learn from, not just the countries which were directly involved in it. Malaysians must not be allowed to remain ignorant of this lesson.