Remembering the Holocaust is also remembering the victims of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina

On the occasion of January 27, the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust, the Institute for Genocide Research Canada emphasizes that the Holocaust is a tragedy of all humanity, not of one people, reports the Patria news agency.  

-Seven decades after the closure of the infamous Auschwitz camp, the lesson has not been learned to this day - history repeats itself – the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina bears witness to this.  

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multiple historical testament that the 20th century is the century of genocide. The genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina was marked by a monstrous inhuman aspiration to exterminate the entire Bosniak national and religious group, to prevent its biological, cultural, social, and ecological survival.

Thus, after the Holocaust, genocide, culturocide, ecocide, ethnocide, urbicide, and elitocide were repeated; death concentration camps were reopened, mass rapes were committed, and mass persecutions were organized in the heart of Europe, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The United Nations, which were founded on the basis of the need to remember the Holocaust, not only failed to apply the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide but allowed genocide to occur under their flag and their „protection“ in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Once again, we remind of the universal principle and fact that the Holocaust and genocide are crimes that cannot be forgotten, that never expire, and that must not disappear from human memory.

Remembrance of the Holocaust has historical importance for all of humanity. The memory of the universal lessons of the Holocaust cannot be left to the past and oblivion.

If Bosniaks forget the genocide, they are doomed to have it repeated. Bosniaks must not forget that before the last genocide, they were taught to forget their national identity, history, culture, language, and tradition. Bosniaks must not forget that they were forced into de-Bosniakization, and now it bothers them that Bosniaks are returning to their ethnic identity, history, language, culture, and tradition in a way of strong national self-awareness of a common Bosniak destiny in a unique Bosnia and Herzegovina without legalized results of aggression and genocide.

From the Holocaust, humanity still has the opportunity to draw a historical lesson and message, and ensure a better future for all of us, although the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, generated by Serbian and Montenegrin Nazism and which, on the bones of murdered victims, inaugurated a genocidal entity, has unfortunately shown a hugely negative experience.

We have a sacred duty to prevent the reawakening of terrifying criminal spirits. Denial of the Holocaust and genocide is a radically inhuman and utterly vile concept. Therefore, we call on all friends of truth and justice, all fighters for the protection of human rights and freedoms, to take action against hatred in order to successfully suppress all forms of discrimination and oppression, to show the world that the criminal has no chance. Stand up for human rights and human dignity by fighting against the denial of the Holocaust and genocide, the IGC Canada stated.