Published: 11 June 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
WHILE SOUTH AFRICANS were ushering in a new democracy in 1994, the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis was taking place. Five years later, when the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre opened its doors, it was this juxtaposition of seismic events that prompted the fledgling institution to make the latter a particular focus of its work, setting the centre apart from others like it.
“The importance of that genocide had particular resonance for us as South Africans, but also as Africans,” said outgoing director Richard Freedman. “It underscored the futility of that phrase ‘Never again.’
It was important for us to realize that in order for us to really understand the Holocaust, we had to also understand genocide in a more general sense.”
Because there was a Rwandan community living in South Africa, coupled with the countries’ proximity on the African continent, it was “almost a given” that it would need to become a place both for Rwandan commemorations and an examination of genocide in the broader sense, said Freedman, who is stepping down after 14 years at the helm.
And so as South Africa engaged in post-apartheid nation-building, hundreds of thousands of individuals inside and outside the Jewish community passed through its doors, hearing a message that condemned bigotry in all forms.
FULL STORY 20 years on, Africa’s first Holocaust centre has a universal message on genocide (Times of Israel)
Photo: Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter addressing high school students (Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre)
