The White House just released the following from President Obama regarding Holocaust Remembrance Day:

“ I join people here at home, in Israel, and around the world in commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day and in honoring the memory of all those who suffered, died and lost loved ones in one of the most barbaric acts in human history.

More than six decades after the Holocaust, and at a time when Holocaust denial and genocidal ideologies persist, our grief and our outrage over the Nazis’ murder of six million Jews and so many others have not diminished. This year marks both the 65th anniversary of the verdicts at the first Nuremberg trial, a defining moment in international justice, and the 50th anniversary of Adolf Eichmann’s trial, where the world heard firsthand testimonies from those who had suffered the horrors of the Holocaust. From this tragedy we see the cost of allowing hatred go unanswered in the world, but from this justice we also see the power of holding the perpetrators of genocide accountable. Remembering these events only reinforces our solemn commitment to confront those who tell lies about our history and to stop the spread of hate in our own time.

We must heed the urgency to listen to and care for the last living survivors, camp liberators and the witnesses to the Shoah. And we must meet our sacred responsibility to honor all those who perished by recalling their courage and dignity in the face of unspeakable atrocities, by insisting that the world never forget them, and by always standing up against intolerance and injustice.”

With elegance and power, the President not only recalls the past, but reminds us of the critical challenges of the present and the obligation we have to the future.  In uniting all As Mr. Obama’s statement makes clear, Holocaust memory is not simply about the past.  As long as Holocaust survivors live in poverty or insecurity, we are not remembering the Holocaust properly.  As long as we remember the Holocaust without safeguarding the world from other ongoing or potential genocides, we are not rembering properly. 

In many ways, the real challenge of Holocaust memory is not, how to remember the past, but how to remember forward – how to remember in ways that create a more humane present and a more secure future — both for the Jewish people and for the entire human race.  When we do that, the past is not simply in the past, but a real component in building the world in which we want and hope to live. 

When memories are preserved “for their own sake” or for the sake of the past, they fade – no matter how much we tell ourselves otherwise.  But, when we remember the past because we need our memory of it in the here and now, the past becomes part of our present and lives on.  The President appreciates that, and so must all of us who are committed to the notion that the events of the Shoah must never be forgotten.