The University College Union (UCU) has apologised after it left out
Jews from a description of the different groups murdered in the
Holocaust, an omission the chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day
Trust called “completely unacceptable”.
The UCU had sent out an
e-mail to branch and local association secretaries, in which chapters of
the union were encouraged to observe HMD 2020, which takes place on
January 27.
It described how the Nazis had persecuted groups such
as “trade unions, including social democrats and Communists”, “Europe’s
Roma and Sinti people”, “Black people”, “disabled people”, “freemasons”,
“gay and lesbian people”, “Jehovah’s witnesses” and “'asocials’, which
included beggars, alcoholics, drug addicts prostitutes and pacifists”
were persecuted by the Nazi regime.
It also specifically mentioned
“non-Jewish Poles and Slavic POWs”. However, it made no mention of
Jews, the primary targets of the Holocaust.
When the e-mail was
publicised, Jews on social media attacked the “shocking” and “sickening”
omission, with others suggesting that the mention of “non-Jewish Poles”
showed the Union had clearly been thinking about who to include – and
who to leave out.
