Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025

The Department of History in collaboration with the History Society of Loreto College, Kolkata organised a programme on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2025, in an effort to pay homage to the victims and survivors of the inhumane atrocities committed during the Holocaust. The programme featured a PowerPoint presentation by the Semester III students of the Department of History, with eight students dissecting various aspects of the Holocaust and highlighting the significance of the event in world history.

Adrija Chatterjee and Soumi Pal introduced the topic by establishing the timeline (1933–1945). Snigdha Saha elaborated on Nazi ideology. Vedika Prabhakar highlighted the key supporters of Nazi philosophy, such as the industrialists, traditional nationalists, conservative elite, and conservative nationalists. Sinjini Roy spoke about the horrific treatment of Jews in the concentration camps, transit camps, extermination camps, and ghettos as well as the condition of homosexual individuals under the Nazi regime. Meghamala Banerjee discussed the interviews of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, including Rachel Goldfarb who lived in a ghetto, and Lydia Tischler and Eva Mozes Kor who were survivors of Mengele’s Twin Experiment. Sanjana Dey brought to attention the condition of women in the concentration camps. Soumi Pal spoke about the youth in Germany and the exploitation they faced.

Adrija Chatterjee mentioned the sources based on which the team had done their research. The sources included the Gemlich Letter (1919), Mein Kamph by Adolf Hitler (1925), The Black Book (1940), The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1947), The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (2018), and the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (2006). Lastly, Atreyee Banerjee discussed the significance of the Holocaust with a special mention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The event concluded with a video honouring the victims by remembering their names instead of reducing them to numbers.

The faculty members of the department, Ms. Srijita Chakravarty, Dr. Krishnokoli Hazra, Dr. Suparna Bhattacharya, and Dr. Anindita Bandopadhyay shared their opinions on the presentation and offered their suggestions at the end of the event. All the attendees sincerely appreciated the efforts of the students who had put together and presented the extremely informative and comprehensive work on "The Holocaust and its Significance."