Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I advise that Senators Rice, Keneally, Ciccone and Wong have added their names to general business notice of motion No. 1098 relating to victims of the Holocaust. I, and also on behalf of Senators Abetz, Hughes, McLachlan, Griff, Kitching, Rice, Keneally, Ciccone and Wong, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) 7 to 8 April 2021 marked Yom HaShoah for Jewish communities across Australia and around the world, a solemn event held to honour and remember the victims of the Holocaust,

(ii) commemorations focused on the Holocaust in the former Soviet Union to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre later this year, and

(iii) Babi Yar was the first and most documented 'open-air shooting', where 33,771 Jews were executed by the Einsatzgruppen on the northern outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine between 29 and 30 September 1941; and

(a) acknowledges Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry's commentary:

'[T]his year's Yom HaShoah event on the Holocaust in the former Soviet Union will mean a great deal to every Australian Jew of Soviet descent. More than that, it will mean that through these acts of remembrance and education, in some small way, we have thwarted the killers who sought to obliterate not only Jewish life but any memory that our people ever lived and died'; and

(b) reaffirms Australia's commitment to never forget those who perished in the Holocaust and to ensure that it is never repeated.

Question agreed to.