On January 27 2025, political dignitaries and Holocaust survivors will gather in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland. They will attend the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps by the Red Army.
Auschwitz was a major network of Nazi concentration and death camps in occupied Poland during the second world war. It has become the preeminent symbol of the Holocaust. Some , were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau network of camps. In 2005, the United Nations established January 27 as .
Australia will be represented by high-ranking politicians. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and Attorney General Mark Dreyfus will attend the ceremony. They will be accompanied by Jillian Segal, the recently appointed Australian special envoy to combat antisemitism.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a that 鈥渋t is vital that the lessons of the past continue to be learnt to ensure this never happens again鈥. It also praises 鈥渢he remarkable contribution鈥 Jewish survivors and their descendants made to Australia.
Not all countries will be represented by their political leaders. A major controversy has surrounded the visit of the Israeli delegation. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of 鈥渨ar crimes鈥 and 鈥渃rimes against humanity鈥. Poland is a member state of the ICC and would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu. Although the Polish government guaranteed Netanyahu鈥檚 safety, he will .
Representatives of the Russian Federation, the successor state of the Soviet Union, whose military liberated Auschwitz, will not be among the guests. This is a consequence of the ongoing large-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022.
In an unusual decision, the Auschwitz memorial decided that . The focus will be on the remaining survivors, 鈥渢heir pain, their trauma and their way to offer us some difficult moral obligations for the present鈥.
These controversies and decisions reflect the challenges that accompany Holocaust remembrance 80 years after the end of the war. In 2025, we commemorate the Holocaust at a time when the last survivors, the 鈥溾, are passing.
It is also a time where our television screens provide daily reminders of rising antisemitism in Australia and elsewhere, a conflict in the Middle East with global repercussions, and examples of Australia鈥檚 continuing struggle to come to terms with its colonial past.
Antisemitism in Australia
The Nazis and their collaborators murdered some six million Jews and millions of other victims.
Close to 10,000 Jewish refugees escaped to Australia before and during WWII. This included around 2,000 German-Jewish detainees sent to Australia from Britain on the in 1940. More could have come, but the government was unwilling to accept large numbers of non-British migrants.
Antisemitism played a role as well. At the Evian Conference on refugees in July 1938, the Australian representative Thomas H. White that Australia had 鈥渘o real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one by encouraging any scheme of large scale foreign migration鈥.
In 2018, the Australian parliament passed a that
issued a profound apology and says 鈥渟orry鈥 to the Jewish people for the indifference shown by the Parliament in 1938 that worsened the impact of the Holocaust.
After 1945, Australia accepted the second largest number of Holocaust survivors per capita after the state of Israel. Historians estimate . They were part of a major transformation in Australian migration policies after WWII.
Once in Australia, they contributed to all sectors of society as model citizens. In public memory, Australia has prided itself on providing a haven for these destitute survivors who for years languished in the Displaced Persons camps of postwar Europe.
The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is being commemorated in the shadow of rising antisemitism in Australia and globally. While antisemitism has a , the past 18 months has witnessed a , following the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza.
In recent months, places of worship, private homes, vehicles and a kindergarten have been vandalised and torched. There were even suspected . The eminent Australian Holocaust historian and survivor, Konrad Kwiet has that 鈥渢he safe season for Jewish people is ending鈥.
Some journalists and dissenting Jewish organisations have . They have tried to differentiate between antisemitism and criticism of Zionism and Israel. Since October 2023, Australian cities have experienced major pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrations. There were encampments at universities, as well as accusations of antisemitism at the same institutions.
Critics of the protests that, although they primarily target Israeli policies, they also normalise antisemitism. A Labor-led Senate committee called the universities responses to antisemitism 鈥溾. We know from recent history that it is often hard to draw a . This difficulty is manifested in academic debates that struggle to legitimate criticism of Israel.
The growing number of antisemitic incidents has been recognised by Australian politicians. Most recently Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a . The opposition has proposed 鈥溾 for antisemitic acts.
The Gaza war
The most recent wave of violence in the Middle East has shaken the field of Holocaust and genocide studies, and influenced Holocaust remembrance. Politicians and activists were quick to .
The 1988 Hamas covenant . Supporters of Israel, including prominent historians, the massacre on 7 October 2023 鈥渢he most important mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust鈥, some of them even comparing it to the 鈥溾.
Other scholars have 鈥渃rimes against civilians鈥 committed by the Israeli army, going so far as . In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found that there was a 鈥溾 of genocide being committed by Israel. The claim was later supported by several human rights agencies.
This and other similar charges led to . Others argued such charges were a form of 鈥淗olocaust inversion鈥 and a cynical attempt to .
The power of historical comparisons in public discourse makes it hard to predict how the war in Gaza will eventually influence Holocaust remembrance and education. Regardless of the eventual decision of the international court, these tensions are likely to remain.
The Holocaust and colonialism
Genocide is a that originated as a response to the horrors of the Holocaust. In public perception, the Holocaust is the ultimate yardstick against which suspected genocides are measured.
Another topic of heated public debate is positioning the Holocaust in the long history of colonialism. Such discussions have flared up in and , among other countries. The treatment of Indigenous people in the Americas, Africa and Australia in the 19th and early 20th century has been characterised by some scholars as a . How does one properly commemorate the Jewish genocide in a country with a ?
The linking of colonialism and genocide remains a sensitive issue in Australian public life. Politicians have publicly stated that any comparison between the Holocaust and colonial history is offensive to the Australian people. In 2017, the Turnbull government rejected the 鈥溾 of these discussions.
Poignantly, International Holocaust Remembrance Day follows immediately after Australia Day on 26 January. Activists for Indigenous rights mourn January 26 as : a date that commemorates the beginning of the destruction of Indigenous communities and the theft of their land.
There have been efforts to connect these historical experiences in Holocaust remembrance. In the last decade, there has been an increasing emphasis on the in December 1938 against the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Following 鈥 a wholesale violent pogrom across Germany 鈥 the Australian Aborigines League unsuccessfully attempted to submit a petition to the German consulate in Melbourne. The protest was led by , a Yorta Yorta leader in Victoria.
The focus on Cooper鈥檚 role in the protest is not without its critics. Some historians have suggested that it overshadows Cooper鈥檚 lifelong campaign for Aboriginal rights. In this memory twist, the public commemorates only a moment in his life unrelated to . Meanwhile, the charge of genocide in Australian history, utilised most powerfully in the debates around the 鈥淪tolen Generation鈥, remains contentious in Australian public discourse.
Holocaust commemoration and education in the 21st century
Australia has a strong tradition of Holocaust remembrance, commemoration and education. Initially, commemorative efforts were in the hands of survivors who established the first Holocaust museums in Melbourne and Sydney in the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, these initiatives have been embraced by politicians and educators.
In 2019, the Australian government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade supported Australia鈥檚 membership of the . This membership comes with a to 鈥渃ombat Holocaust denial and antisemitism, and to share best practice on Holocaust education and remembrance鈥. The Morrison government spent millions of dollars to establish new Holocaust memorials and support Holocaust education.
As of 2025, Holocaust museums and institutes exist in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin and Adelaide. They educate thousands of Australian students and their teachers every year. The sponsors Holocaust education programs for Australian teachers at Yad Vashem in Israel. Holocaust education is compulsory in Years 9 and 10 in . State governments place significant , stressing its importance for 鈥渇ighting intolerance and prejudice in today鈥檚 world鈥.
The Holocaust remains a touchstone for those wishing to address contemporary injustices. Australia is no exception in this regard. The issues addressed here attest to the enduring power of the Holocaust as an analogical device.
Yet these comparisons often court controversy. Holocaust educators if the way forward is by universalising the event or by giving greater attention to its specifically Jewish dimensions. Others believe it is equally important to .
There is a strong argument that we must think about the contemporary relevance of Holocaust education or it may lose its potency. But there is also the ever-present danger of simplistic and misleading connections between past and present.
We need to cultivate the 鈥溾. Yet in our current politically charged atmosphere this is proving increasingly difficult. The Holocaust endures as the ultimate historical example of where prejudices, violence and indifference lead. But it cannot be isolated from current challenges.
Some 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, it is the memory, rather than the history, of the Holocaust that remains at stake.
, Associate Professor in Modern European History and Jewish History, and , Professor of Holocaust Studies and Jewish Civilisation,
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