From Auschwitz, to Bosnia, to Gaza: The price of silence

"Genocide thrives when the world averts its eyes, and history is repeating before us. When we prevent or put an end to genocide, we honour the victims of past genocides and, in doing so, keep their memory alive. We draw a clear line between reasonable human behaviour and our capacity to inflict unimaginable violence on others. In doing so, we help ensure the suffering of the past is not repeated."

"This is why it is painful for survivors of genocide, and those who have inherited the trauma from their parents and grandparents, to witness the atrocities currently being committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian population. Naturally, one grieves for the tens of thousands of innocent people, including children, slaughtered in Gaza. But one also feels betrayed, because the repetition of genocidal violence once again dishonours the memories of loved ones lost long ago."

"We write this column together because the horrors of genocide still reverberate within us every day: Jill's father, Gene, was a prisoner at Auschwitz in 1944 at the age of 16, and Damir was a child in Bosnia during the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the 1990s. We have both lost dozens of family members, who vanished in gas chambers or across multiple mass graves."

Genocide prospers when bystanders avert their eyes, enabling history to repeat. Preventing genocide honors victims and preserves their memory, drawing a distinction between reasonable human behavior and capacity for unimaginable violence. Survivors and descendants experience deep pain and betrayal when contemporary atrocities echo past genocides, grieving massacred civilians while feeling the repetition dishonours lost loved ones. Personal histories include imprisonment at Auschwitz and childhood amid Bosnian ethnic cleansing, with dozens of relatives vanished in gas chambers or mass graves. Bystander behavior has shifted little: teachers, townspeople, and neighbors often watched mistreatment, deportations, and mass graves without intervening.

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