Desecrating the Memory of Millions

"It is mind bogglingly inappropriate to pose for bathing suit photos and videos at a site where people go to mourn, honour and remember those who were murdered in the Holocaust."

"People cannot claim ignorance [of the purpose of the Holocaust memorial]."

"I think what it points to is a lack of understanding about the Holocaust in our society."

Andrea Freedman, CEO, Jewish Federation of Ottawa

"The Holocaust, at best, is given two lessons [World War II curriculum taught in Ontario public high schools], and it all depends on the teacher."

"Canadians have a very limited knowledge of the Holocaust because it's not taught properly in the schools..."

"We feel Canadians have a moral obligation to remember the past."

Mina Cohn, chair, Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship, Ottawa

National Holocaust Memorial   Photo: National Capital Commission

 

Once again the Canadian Holocaust Memorial has been selected by discriminating photographers as the perfect site for a fashion shoot. The shock value of its sere, forbidding raw cement colour and texture with a seductive pose assumed by a fashion model showing off the latest fashion creations has led to such shoots on a number of occasions. Ms. Freedman is partially correct when she states that people cannot claim ignorance of the purpose of this solemn memorial, but yet their actions identify them as morally ignorant.

Professional photographers are well aware of signal monuments and places of diverse photographic architecture to use as backdrops highlighting the human figure in pose. Those with an utter lack of scruples gravitate to any background surface that will illuminate and contrast with the objective they wish to cultivate with their choices. To be noticed, even if with a subtle frisson of shock. Some of the perpetrators of this assault on the sensibilities of a solemn memorial express remorse.

Others refuse to be intimidated by the fact that they have sullied their own moral intelligence by this type of selection, and defy a social and ethical requirement to apologize and withdraw the offending photographs from public view. "If taking a photo with grey walls as a backdrop is a crime, lock me up," Ottawa photographer Mikey Calds wrote, in April of 2022 adding that he isn’t the first person to shoot there and won’t be the last. "I’m not taking down my work."

 

This week again an Ottawa-based photographer posted YouTube videos of a bathing suit fashion shoot. Because the photographer apologized and acted immediately to remove the material, his name has been withheld. Montreal clothing designer  Michele Beaudoin posted pictures to Instagram of a woman in a revealing dress at the monument in August of 2018, later deleted.  

In September of 2018 a survey of 1,100 Canadians commissioned by the Azrieli Foundation, found fifty percent of Canadians were unable to name a single Nazi concentration camp, not even Auschwitz, Treblinka or Belzec, the most infamously 'famous' among the hundreds that were installed in Nazi-occupied Europe. Again, fewer than half interviewed were able to identify that six million Jews were annihilated during the Holocaust. A monumental state-compelled monstrosity in relatively recent history.

Canada was among very few Western nations that failed to erect a memorial to the horrifying genocide meant to destroy all of Europe's Jews, the 'Final Solution' that Fascist Germany under Adolf Hitler was fanatically committed to. In the process, committing untold resources to the gruesomely inhumane project while conducting a world war with its Axis partners with the intention of establishing a 'pure Aryan' world domination.

An 18-year-old University student felt this lack of acknowledgement through a national monument was unworthy of Canada, and she set about lobbying federal politicians for appropriate legislation to be enacted for one to finally be erected. Through a private member's bill launched by a Conservative Sikh Member of Parliament, Tim Uppal, that law was enacted. Private subscription and federal funding made the memorial a reality and it was inaugurated in 2017. 

 

At the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his entourage 'forgot' to mention that the murdered Europeans for whom the memorial had been built, were Jews. And nor did any of the plaques installed outside and within the memorial identify the millions of victims as Jews. This 'oversight' by politicians and the country's leader himself as good an illustration as any of the importance of remembering that horrendous mass atrocity, overlooked by most Canadians...

The National Holocaust Monument  THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

"I would say, 'Tell me why you did it here. For God sakes, you're in the nation's capital, there are so many wonderful places where you could do a shoot like this. I don't know exactly what the nature of the pictures were. I've heard that they were more appropriate for the beach than anything else, but there's beaches here too! You could have done it there."

"But thank God for a public which has stood up and said, this is not appropriate. It's not a crime, but it's not appropriate -- use your brains."

"Make sure that if you see, even a snippet of insensitivity or insult toward someone, because of whatever, what their faith is -- take the appropriate action of reminding them that you're blessed to live in a country like this, [and that they should not] take advantage of it, [but] use it as an opportunity to grow and to share."

(The late) Rabbi Reuven Bulka, 2018 incident