Prof. Boas: Remembrance is the most powerful weapon against genocide

Excellent article. History ignored yields history repeated. All holocaust and genocide events must be reported, researched and remembered to decrease the risk of recurrence of such atrocities as well as for respect to the victims and their descendants. Some additional relevant points below.

1. Holocaust typically refers to the deaths of a huge number of people. The first WW2 atrocity to be described as a "holocaust" was the "forgotten" Bengali Holocaust in which 6-7 million Indians were deliberately starved to death by the British with Australian complicity (see N.G. Jog, "Churchill's blindspot: India", 1944: Gideon Polya, "Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History", 1998, 2008; Madhusree Mukerjee, "Churchill's Secret War", 2010; Tom Keneally "Three Famines", 2010).

2. The Jewish Holocaust (or Shoah) (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) was part of a bigger European Holocaust in which 30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies perished. In the WW2 Eastern Theatre there were 2 standout atrocities, the 35 million Chinese who perished under the Japanese and 6-7 million Indians who perished under the British and the nuclear and conventional mass murder of Japanese civilians. Yet WW2 Holocaust has become synonymous in the West with the WW2 Jewish Holocaust.

3. Genocide is legally defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention which states: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” "Intent" is rarely established by confession but is exposed by sustained, remorseless conduct leading to mass mortality whether or not that outcome was desired per se (as by the British in India in 1942-1945).

4. Using the UN definition of genocide the following genocide events can be perceived by humane scholars but are remorselessly ignored as such by Western and Australian Mainstream media (violent deaths plus avoidable deaths from imposed deprivation in parentheses): Aboriginal Genocide (2 million, 1788-2012), Palestinian Genocide (2.0 million, 1936-2012), Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million, 1990-2012), Somali Genocide (1992-2012), Afghan Genocide (5.0 million, 2001-2012) (Google "Aboriginal Genocide", "Muslim Holocaust", "Muslim Genocide", "Palestinian Genocide").

5. Whether a child (or anyone) is shot or dies from violence-imposed deprivation the finality of death is the same and the culpability the same. 1.5 million Jewish children died in WW2 under the Nazis but under-5 infant deaths total 2.0 million (Iraq, 1990-2012), 1.3 million (Somalia, 1992-2012), 2.9 million (Afghanistan , 2001-2012), 90% avoidable and due to US allaince war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention. Global avoidable deaths from deprivation total 1.3 billion (1950-2005), this estimate being consonant with under-5 infant deaths totalling 0.9 billion. 18 million people died avoidably in the Developjng World in 2010, 16 million in 2003 (see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950"). It is estimated that about 10 billion non-Europeans will die from deprivation this century if man-made climate change is not requisitely addressed (Google "Climate Genocide").

The core message from the WW2 Jewish Holocaust is "never again to anyone".