April 12, 2018
We remember the Holocaust more than 70 years after that horror. International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the Warsaw ghetto uprising, when Jewish people put up the single largest resistance of World War II as German troops entered the ghetto to deport the last of the inhabitants.
The United Nations was formed in 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, to create a world in which war on the scale of that war would never happen again. This year, the UN will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. However, the world is once again experiencing a rise in anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance of other groups of people, along with an increase in group-led violence and atrocities around the world.
Samuel Pisar, survivor of Auschwitz and former UNESCO special envoy for Holocaust and genocide education, warns: “We have a solemn duty to share with our fellow people the memory of what we endured and learned in body and soul. We must warn our children, Jewish and non-Jewish, that the fanaticism and violence that are spreading in our enflamed world again can destroy their universe as they once destroyed mine.”
Remembrance of all the victims of Axis powers crimes is a call to reaffirm the church’s commitment to human rights and human dignity for all God’s people. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to speak truth to power, knowing that God calls us to bear witness for justice and against racism and intolerance.
The Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations continues to be a witness for God’s justice and peace in the international community.
Simon Doong, Young Adult Volunteer, Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations
Today’s Focus: Holocaust Remembrance Day
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Rick Jones, PMA
Hyo Jin Kang, PMA
Let us pray:
Dear God, we pray that the world never forgets the Holocaust. We keep the victims’ memory alive to inform us as we seek justice and equality for all in our world today. The Holocaust showed that we can be so cruel to each other, but you show us grace and hope. Help us extend that grace to one another. Amen.
Daily Readings
Morning Psalms 47; 147:12-20
First Reading Exodus 16:10-22
Second Reading 1 Peter 2:11-3:12
Gospel Reading John 15:12-27
Evening Psalms 68; 113
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Categories: Mission Yearbook
Tags: holocaust remembrance day, justice, minute for mission, mission yearbook, peace, world war II