Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the public should be “outraged and offended” by the growing number of people in Ireland who do not believe the Holocaust happened.
A survey last week by the Claims Conference, a New York-based organisation involved in Holocaust remembrance, found that almost 10 per cent of Irish people between the ages of 18 and 29 thought the Holocaust was a “myth”.
Speaking at the annual Holocaust Education Ireland remembrance event in Dublin, Mr Martin said the Holocaust was “the most clearly documented crime in world history”.
“Its savagery and scale are undeniable, as are the identities of its victims. This level of ignorance and denial is shocking and must be opposed,” he added.
Tánaiste Simon Harris and Taoiseach Michéal Martin with Holocaust survivor Suzi Diamond at the National Holocaust Memorial event at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
The Taoiseach said the Department of Education was working with the Department of Foreign Affairs to develop an educational programme with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
The Jewish community in Ireland has come forward with a proposal to give schools access to Holocaust survivors via video conference to discuss and learn from their experiences.
Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton is examining ways of ensuring that young people are reminded of what happened to Jews at the hands of the Nazis during the second World War.
Mr Martin expressed solidarity with the Jewish community in relation to the massacre during Hanukkah celebrations in Sydney last month in which two gunmen killed 15 people.
He went on to criticise attempts by members of Dublin City Council to rename Herzog Park in Rathgar, which is called after former Israeli president Chaim Herzog, who spent his early childhood in Dublin. The motion did not go forward to a full city council meeting because of a regulatory technicality.
The Taoiseach highlighted the lack of consultation with the local Jewish community about the plan.
“When a group of people decide that they will seek to rename the only part in our capital named after an Irish Jew without any consultation with the Jewish community – and when they announce later that they will find a Jew they deem worthy enough to provide a new name – then frankly the community has every right to be deeply concerned and to express that concern,” he said.
Some 600 people attended the memorial event at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
Last year, a small number of attendees at the event in the Mansion House turned their back on President Michael D Higgins during his speech when he mentioned the war in Gaza. Some were forcibly removed from the venue.
Members of the Jewish community in Ireland held a smaller event at the Irish Jewish Museum at which second and third generation survivors shared their experiences.
Chief Rabbi of Ireland Yoni Wieder at the Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin. Photo: Bryan O’Brien
Chief Rabbi of Ireland Yoni Wieder described the results of the survey about the Holocaust as “shocking”. He said any attempt to minimise the scale of it played down the level of systemic genocide and slaughter that happened.
Suzi Diamond, one of the few Holocaust survivors remaining in Ireland, said young people visit the death camps in Europe to see what happened. She said she “lost everything” in the Holocaust and arrived in Ireland without a word of English.
“The past can actually happen again in the future, and you need events like this to bring it to people’s attention.”
Holocaust Survivor Suzi Diamond at the National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration. Photo: Bryan O’Brien
Others in attendance at the year’s event included Tánaiste Simon Harris and the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, who took a firm stance against the campaign to rename Herzog Park.
In advance of the event, Mr Harris described the findings of the Claims Conference survey as “profoundly disturbing”.
“It reflects how powerful disinformation has become in battling historical education, and how exposure to lies on social media has such a hugely destructive and insidious effect,” he said.