Turkish publish television, TRT, started airing French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary "Shoah" on Thursday night, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Turkey is the first Muslim nation to broadcast such a film on state television. (Courtesy IFC Films)

Since 2005, when Holocaust Remembrance Day was declared by a United Nations resolution, millions around the world pause on Jan. 27 to remember the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. But this year, 67 years since the liberation and seven years after the day was established, will see a number of firsts.

Ukraine Celebrates its First

In 2012, Ukraine is observing Holocaust Remembrance Day for the first time, with official ceremonies taking place on Saturday. Roughly 900,000 Ukrainian Jews perished during the Nazi Holocaust. In September 1941 alone, some 133,000 Jews were murdered at Babi Yar, near Kyiv.

B’nai B’rith International, the world’s most prominent Jewish service organization, issued a statement of praise for Ukraine’s adoption of the day of commemoration.

“B’nai B’rith commends Ukraine for recognizing the importance of remembering and honoring the lives of those who were brutally murdered during the Holocaust and the tragedy of the immense losses inflicted on Ukraine’s Jewish community.”

A total of 2,272 Ukrainians, the fourth largest national group, are honored at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel as “Righteous among the Nations” for their heroism in saving Jews. 

Ukrainian Bishop Paul Peter Jesep, U.S. spokesperson of the Eastern Orthodox Church and an attorney in New York, wrote a poignant op-ed for the occasion on Ukrainian news portal BRAMA. He cautions people not to allow the victims to be depersonalized as mere statistics.

“Entire families were taken by this surreal, incomprehensible horror … Each had a personal story. Think about your own child stripped and shot into a ditch. Imagine a beloved parent or grandparent shot in the head before your eyes. Hopes and dreams maliciously taken away. There would be overwhelming emotions of grief, despair, and disbelief. Multiply this travesty by the nearly 2 million souls who experienced them before being murdered. It is incomprehensible to feel so much suffering. 

“This is not a ‘Jewish tragedy,’“ he said. “It is a human tragedy of epic proportions.”

Turkey First Muslim Country to Air Holocaust Film

Turkish public television TRT decided to air the epic French documentary on the Holocaust “Shoah,” becoming the first state broadcaster in a Muslim country to do so. 

“Broadcasting Shoah on public television in a Muslim country is a major step and I welcome the decision of TRT’s executives,” filmmaker Claude Lanzmann was quoted as saying in a press release by TRT.

“I hope this initiative will lead other countries in the Muslim world to follow the example of Turkey. No part of our international community should exclude itself from the universal lessons of the darkest pages of Europe’s history,” Lanzmann added.

Lanzmann spent 11 years making the film that relies heavily on interviews with Holocaust-survivors as it examines the attempted extermination of European Jewry.

The over nine-hour documentary was subtitled in Turkish, Arabic and Persian by the Paris-based Aladdin Project. Last March, Los Angeles-based Pars TV satellite channel broadcasted Claude Lanzmann’s film the Persian version in Iran.

“While the government reacted with ire, Iranian television viewers welcomed it and the station received close to 3,000 emails and calls in support of the telecast,” says the press release.

The first episode of the film aired on Jan. 26, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

While Turkey is officially a secular country, some 96 percent of Turks are Muslim and Islam is taught in schools. 

Norway Acknowledges Role in Deportations

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg stood at the dock on Friday from which the German cargo ship SS Donau set sail with 532 Norwegian Jews bound for Nazi extermination camps in 1942, and apologized for his country’s role in the deportations.

“Without relieving the Nazis of their responsibility, it is time to for us to acknowledge that Norwegian policemen and other Norwegians took part in the arrest and deportation of Jews,” said the Prime Minister in acknowledging the state’s role for the first time.

“Today I feel it is fitting for me to express our deepest apologies that this could happen on Norwegian soil,” he said.

During the war, 772 Norwegian Jews and Jewish refugees, or about one third of the country’s Jewish population, was arrested and deported. Only 34 survived. 

Nine of them had been on the SS Donau, and the sole living survivor, Samuel Steinmann, sat before the prime minister, to hear his words of apology 70 years later.

“I am especially pleased to have you here with us today,” Stoltenberg said to Steinmann

Stoltenberg also reminded all to remain vigilant against the ideas that led to the Holocaust, which he said are still very much alive today.

“We must promise each other to respond to totalitarian views with firmness. We must counter them arguments deeply rooted in the principles of humanity and equality,” he said.

According to news reports cited by the prime minister, Jews in Norway still live in fear. “We cannot accept this in Norway,” he said.

“We all have a responsibility to use knowledge to expose such views for what they are. To protect vulnerable groups from threats and violence. The goal is the same. To make Norway a safe place for Jews,” he said. “No one – no individual, no minority – should have to live in fear in this country,”