The Daily Free Press (Boston U.)
(U-WIRE) BOSTON-Holocaust survivors and religious leaders united on Friday at the Statehouse and voiced their concern over the ignorance or apathy toward genocide they say is prevalent in America, at the same time urging activism to stop the current genocide in Darfur.
Friday marked the first-annual United Nations International Day of Remembrance for Holocaust Victims.
Sixty years ago on Jan. 27, 1946, one of the largest World War II death camps, Auschwitz, was liberated by the Soviet Army, and the UN declared this date a day of remembrance for people around the world.
David Gai, a survivor of the Sudanese genocide, spoke of his experiences and his escape that saved his life.
Gai also expressed his anger at the apathy and ignorance he sees in regard to genocides in his home country.
“I could not believe when I came to the U.S. in 2001 and I talked about my suffering, people acted like they didn’t know about the situation in the Sudan,” Gai said. “Now there is a genocide in Western Sudan, Darfur. People are being killed on a daily basis. We don’t want to wait until it is too late.”
Every attendee received an informational card on Darfur that urged the group to raise awareness for the genocide through writing to the White House.