The futility of ‘Never Again’

NEW DELHI: Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985), a nine-hour long French documentary chronicling the Holocaust, is filled with descriptions of horrors perpetrated by the Nazis as part of the Jewish pogrom during World War II. One sequence involves an interview with a survivor named Abraham Bomba who recounts an episode that transpired during his days at the Treblinka death camp. As a barber designated with shaving the heads of the women to be herded into the gas chambers, Bomba tearfully recalls how on one occasion, he encountered the wife and sister of a neighbour, who also happened to be a barber, being sent to the chambers.

In the backdrop of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, which was observed last week, Europe once again finds itself staring at an escalating conflict that threatens to derail the pledge of ‘Never Again’, that was taken in the aftermath of World War II. In less than a month, we will mark one year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The assault has had far-reaching economic ramifications — with petrol and gas prices going through the roof, and inflation hitting record highs across the world.

Military engagements aside — there are instances of human rights violations that have transpired in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. Weeks into the invasion, Russian forces committed mass murder in the city of Bucha, where civilians and prisoners of war were tortured and summarily executed by retreating Russian army personnel. Viral footage of the plunder showed images of dead citizens bound and gagged, their bodies exhibiting signs of torture.

The new age of military warfare is also witnessing social media being weaponised in pursuit of nationalist goals. A few months ago, a video allegedly released by the Wagner group, a Russian paramilitary organization of mercenaries hand-picked to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine, sent shockwaves the world over. The video depicted the last moments of a Russian mercenary who had defected to Ukraine, who was in turn swapped with Russia as part of a prisoner-exchange deal. The footage of the punishment meted out to the defector was aimed at ‘making an example of anyone who dared to betray the fatherland’, although the Wagner group denied it had anything to do with this video.

The episodes of ethnic cleansing and communal strifes are not limited to Europe alone. Here in India, tempers have flared over a documentary, set against the backdrop of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Commissioned by a foreign broadcaster, the narrative portrays the Prime Minister in an unfavourable light. The timing of the release of this documentary is telling considering India is just one year away from the Lok Sabha polls in 2024, for which the ruling party is burning the midnight oil to appease the vote bank.

As we are acutely aware, public memory is fickle, and painfully short-lived. The emergence of social media, documentaries and films have done little to quell the embers of prejudice, bigotry and hatred that permeates cultures and nations to this day. Episodes of anti-Semitism are still perpetrated across the western world; men of African American origin are subjected to police discrimination based on skin colour, while here in India, members of the minority are targeted in broad daylight, their suffering beamed live on Twitter for the whole nation to see. ‘Never Again’ seemed like a great catchphrase to begin with, but holds little value in the world as we know it today.