Among them are Sabit Jakupović and Safet Vukalić, who survived the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A group of Holocaust and recent genocide survivors have signed an open letter urging everyone, especially UK MPs and peers, to consider the impact of their words at a time when there is so much hatred and division in the world. Among them are Sabit Jakupović and Safet Vukalić, who survived the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The letter is reproduced in full
“We are a group of survivors of the Holocaust and recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, and we are writing this open letter because we look around us, and we are concerned.
Hate crime incidents in the UK are rising at an alarming rate. Dangerous divisions are forming in our society, fuelled by the extreme and polarising language of those in positions of power, all of which serves to make an already precarious environment increasingly unstable. We are living witnesses to what can happen if this caustic public discourse is not recognised, challenged and stopped.
Each of us has experienced first-hand the identity-based hostility of the genocidal regimes that persecuted us. History has shown how divisions and hatred have broken societies by marginalizing certain groups, making “others” out of them. We have felt the horror and fear descend upon our communities. We have seen how these germs of division take root in identities and what begins as name-calling becomes a license to mutilate and kill.
We know what can happen when hatred and divisions go unnoticed, and we believe that we are all responsible for stopping them at their roots. Therefore, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day – which will mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia – we are asking everyone to think carefully about the use of their language.
We call on our members of parliament and the pens to think about the truth, beyond their political point-scoring, and the long-term impact of their words. We call on them to lead by example, to take responsibility for their use of language, and to make positive choices by not using words with the dangerous potential to inflame tensions for a moment of political gain.
Our society is divided and words alone will not unite us. But by calling on those with the power to change the way we debate to pay more attention to the language they use, we hope we can help create a gentler, more respectful climate in which these divisions can begin to heal.
Yours,
Steven Frank BEM, Holocaust survivor
Ivor Perl BEM, Holocaust survivor
Hannah Lewis MBE, Holocaust survivor
Joan Salter MBE, Holocaust survivor
Dr Martin Stern MBE, Holocaust survivor
Bernd Koschland MBE, rescuer of Jewish children from Germany
Sabit Jakupović, survivor of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Safet Vukalić BEM, survivor of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Var Ashe Houston, survivor of the Cambodian genocide
Sokphal Din BEM, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide
Eric Eugene Murangwa MBE, survivor of the Rwandan genocide
Zina Abbas, survivor of the Darfur genocide
Isam Agieb, survivor of the Darfur genocide”
