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Press Information published by the International Auschwitz Committee

15.11.2017

The situation of the Rohingya people in Myanmar: “A bitter and very painful conclusion”

 
 
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In September this year the International Auschwitz Committee already spoke out against the persecution and sufferings of the Rohingya people that has been intensifying since October 2016 in Myanmar. In August 2017 the army increased the mass murders and acts of rape as they scoured the Rohingya villages in Myanmar. Since August this year more than 600,000 members of the Rohingya people have fled from Myanmar to save their lives. But their suffering, especially that of the children, continues in the overcrowded refugee camps.

For Auschwitz survivors, the images they are now seeing of the threats, the persecution and the suffering of the Rohingya people trigger associations with their own experiences and their own lifelong pain related to the persecution and the murder of their families during the Nazi years. Now the United States Holocaust Museum has also pointed to the mounting evidence of genocide against the Rohingya people: together with human rights groups from south-east Asia, the US Holocaust Museum has monitored the situation of the Rohingyas and recorded testimonies in interviews and meetings with surviving witnesses.

In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

“Together with the people in charge of the United States Holocaust Museum, the Auschwitz survivors deplore above all the failure of the international community to act. The images of suffering, persecution and mass murder are clearly unable to penetrate the indifference of many people. As long as the government in Myanmar can rely on this indifference, there will be no end to the relentless ethnic cleansing, murder and violence in Myanmar. This is a bitter and very painful conclusion for Auschwitz survivors.”

 
 
 

For further Information

Christoph Heubner

Executive Vice President
International Auschwitz Committee
Phone ++ 49 (0)30 26 39 26 81