Never forgetting, even when we claim we didn’t know
Honoring those who perished at Whitestone Hill, two monuments have been erected. The larger, standing high on top of the hill, recognized those soldiers who fought and died. Erected in the early 1900s, the story it relates is one of bravery against a savage tribe. Four decades later, a second monument was erected to honor those who fell victim to a massacre, and largely were innocent. For many in North Dakota, it is a case of “we didn’t know.” However, as tensions grow, it needs to become a case of “never forget,” so past atrocities don’t continue. Dustin White photo
Dustin White
“Never forget.” After the Holocaust, it became a popular slogan, and for good reason. More than six million individuals were killed, with the expressed purpose to eliminate them. To force their extinction.
Another slogan, while never picked up officially by any group, also became popular at that time: “I/we didn’t know.” When the horrors of what had occurred to those millions of individuals had become known, this slogan echoed throughout much of the world.
For many at the time, it was the truth, they hadn’t known the atrocities that were playing out in Germany. While German concentration camps were mentioned in U.S. newspapers as early as 1933, when Dachua opened, it wasn’t until the early 1940s that the extermination began.
Even though there were some reports of the mass killings, they were largely ignored and not believed, having been seen primarily as propaganda.
When the truth did come to light, it shocked much of the world. Not wanting to allow such atrocities to be repeated, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 9, 1948.
A few countries were initially opposed to the treaty, and it would take the U.S. four decades to adopt it.
In 1994, the slogan, “Never forget,” and the Genocide Convention, had a chance to be honored. Rwanda was descending into chaos, as Hutus took up arms against Tutsis, and those Hutus who were seen as sympathizers, with the expressed intention of extermination.
Messages were sent around the world of the atrocity that was occurring. Yet, as the body count was nearing a million, and even more were being forced to become refugees, the world turned a blind eye.
In the United States, the then President, Bill Clinton, refused to use the term genocide, at least in public. If he had, the U.S. would have been obligated to intervene, which congress implored the president to do.
The atrocity in Rwanda was eventually recognized as a genocide, but by then, it was largely too late. Nearly 70% of the Tutsi population in Rwanda was exterminated.
“Never forget,” turned into “I/we didn’t know,” and the expense was close to a million individuals having lost their lives, and many more having lost their homes. Nearly no one in the country was untouched by the tragedy; knowing either someone was was killed, or who turned out to be a killer.
Around half a century separated the atrocities that occurred in Germany during the Holocaust, and the tragedy of Rwanda. Genocide in Germany was committed largely by gas chambers and guns, while that in Rwanda was conducted primarily through the machete. Yet both instances shared at least one thing in common; they were both systematically planned out and executed.
For those looking to exterminate another group of humans, it doesn’t really matter what time period they live in, or what technology is available to them. If others turn a blind eye, such exterminations, and atrocities, won’t be stopped.
There is a need to take the slogan, “Never forget,” and fully implement, to actually mean it. Because when we switch it with “I/we didn’t know,” … well history has shown how that ends.