Holocaust : the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II 

"[Urgent!] What was the approval process for this text? Did it go by the committee? Was it included in the final decision note?"
"Sorry to disturb on a Sat. MINO [the minister's office] is wondering if the plaque can be removed today? Please Confirm." 
"The plaque was being rewritten] to better align with the interpretive panels."
"The National Holocaust Monument features 23 interpretive plaques, signage for each of the murals, a donor wall and a dedication plaque."
"The content of these panels went through a comprehensive review process that included the National Holocaust Monument Development Council. After the inauguration of the monument, the text of the dedication plaque was revised to specifically refer to the Jewish community, while making a global reference to the other groups that were also targeted during the Holocaust."
Canadian Heritage Ministry

"[It was] just one of those things that happen in a complex project of this nature."
"It is important to note that when we raised the issue with the relevant elected officials, they moved quickly to fix the problem."
"The Jewish community is gratified with the commitment expressed by successive governments."
Martin Sampson, spokesperson, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"In amongst the debates over wording and plaque positioning, somehow the one plaque that introduced the others -- and made no sense outside the context of the plaques detailing the Nazi genocide of six million Jews along with homosexuals, the disabled and others -- ended up mounted all on its own on a separate wall."
"Visitors to the site were rightly disturbed to encounter this major injustice to the memory of the six million Jews for whom the monument was built. All of the parties involved are deeply remorseful and we apologize unconditionally for the pain we have caused by this oversight."
Rabbi Daniel Friedman, chair, Holocaust Memorial Committee

Under the former Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a plan got underway to construct a memorial to the Holocaust after much discussion. The public was invited to subscribe in underwriting the cost of the memorial. It was thought high time that Canada erect such a memorial, one of the few developed countries of the world for whom such a memorial hadn't presented as a reminder of the wholesale atrocity perpetrated by Nazi Germany on Europe's Jews in a well-coordinated plan at total genocide.

When the memorial was unveiled at a ceremony in September of 2017 some of those in attendance noted with surprise that the major plaque, a huge steel piece of dedicated signage identifying the memorial's purpose and background somehow omitted Jews from its inscription dedicated to the lost lives of millions of men, women and children. It was a generic plaque in dedication to a very specific event that targeted a very specific group of people for total annihilation in a hugely successful, deadly mission that shocked and horrified the world.

The team tasked with approving the details of the Holocaust Monument in Ottawa seem to have been concerned with every little detail — except what was actually written on the dedication plaque. Tony Caldwell  /PostMedia Network

How identifying Jews with the monumental atrocity of the Holocaust was overlooked was in and of itself a shock; that no one involved in this enterprise of remembering and honouring the countless dead realized, was remotely aware, even seemed to think it the essence of the reason for the memorial seemed unbelievable; an oversight of gross ineptitude that curdled the appreciation of the memorial's purpose. Under federal Access to Information laws, a horde of emails associated with this debacle was recently released and investigated.

The exquisite details discussed by the design team, the manufacturing and positioning of the plaque alongside a second plaque in appreciation to donors who altogether raised $4.5 million for the project somehow lacked any attention to the wording of the plaque. Not ignored were manufacturing specifications, wall measurements, sight line analyses, a "geometric relation" between the two major plaques to be positioned on the outside wall of the monument. The dedication plaque measuring 2.4 by 1.5 metres is huge. And was utterly lacking in pointed content.

At the September 27 opening, the introductory plaque, separate from the 23 interpretive panels, stood out as a sad oversight in conveying the initial, most vital message identifying the need for the memorial. The plaque would have to be removed, immediately if not sooner; its content rewritten to reflect the obviously overlooked, and the new plaque reinstalled. The initial cost of all the plaques had totalled $53,810. The-then Heritage Minister, Melanie Joly, had signed off on the project as it was finalized; no word about text.

The text that mentioned "millions of men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust", but no word that most were Jews. The cost to remove the first dedication plaque was modest enough. The replacement with the requisite identification of the major victim group came to $50,000. The national Jewish group that commented on the oversight, making light of it, avowing the Jewish community's gratitude toward the Liberal government and its functionaries that didn't care enough to care seemed typical of a non-demanding group accustomed to hoping for notice then falling all over itself to express humble gratitude when it came, however incompetently.