Canadian Holocaust Memorial Unveiled with Controversy
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau inaugurated the National Holocaust Monument on September 17 in Ottawa. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Canadian government removed a plaque at the recently unveiled National Holocaust Monument on October 4 because it failed to explicitly mention the Jewish people. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau inaugurated the monument, Canada’s first, on September 27 in Ottawa.
The plaque “commemorates the millions of men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust” and “honours the survivors who persevered” and reached Canada after “one of the darkest chapters in history.” The plaque failed to directly mention the Jewish community or any of the other groups the Nazi regime targeted.
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazi regime killed up to six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Roma, homosexuals, and individuals with disabilities. Opposing politicians, Israeli news media, and Jewish advocates promptly called-out Trudeau’s government for the exclusion. The Times of Israel issued an edition headlined “Canada Holocaust memorial omits any mention of Jews, anti-Semitism.”
Opposition officials quickly took to social media to criticize the government. Senator Linda Frum tweeted on October 3, “In Justin Trudeau's Canada the new Holocaust Monument plaque doesn't mention Jews, Anti-Semitism or the 6 Million.”
According to the New York Times, David Sweet, an opposition MP, asked Parliament, “How could the prime minister permit such a glaring omission of reference to anti-Semitism and the fact that the millions of men, women, and children who were murdered were overwhelmingly Jewish?”
Canadaian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly ordered the plaque to be removed and replaced in response to the criticism, the Toronto Star reported. Canadian news reports suggest the omission was accidental.
The architecture of the monument consists of six concrete triangles depicting the stars Jews wore and that marked them for extermination in Nazi Germany. The triangles also depict the badges other minority groups wore before being killed in the concentration camps. Panels throughout the monument underscore the targeting and extermination of Jews by the Nazi regime, the New York Timesreports.
Additionally, speakers addressed both the effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish community and anti-Semitism during the unveiling of the monument. Trudeau reaffirmed Canada’s “unshakable commitment to fight anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination in all its forms” and paid “tribute to those who experienced the worst of humanity.”
Martin Sampson of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs said, “we raised our concerns with the government. They were very responsive, acknowledged the error, and agreed to correct it immediately.”
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the Canadian government is also consdiering plans to apologize for turning away the M.S. St. Louis in 1939. The ship carried more than 900 German Jews seeking asylum in Canada after the U.S. and Cuba denied them entry. They returned to Germany, and many died in the Holocaust.
“May this monument remind us to always open our arms and hearts to those in need,” Trudeau said in allusion to the St. Louis.