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Elie Wiesel aimed to do many things when writing Night, but one goal mentioned was to be sure an event such as the Holocaust would never occur again. "Night" was written so we as people can acknowledge what occurred in these camps, how these people were treated by those in power. That the people who committed and supported these acts were monsters of men and the lives lost in the camp are much more than numbers on a graph. Unfortunately, whether the world refuses to acknowledge such events, ethnic, racial, and religious persecution still occur quite frequently all over the world. Through this assignment I was able to educate myself on a topic I am far from well versed in and take a second to genuinely hear what the people affected so greatly about these events had to say.

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Religious Persecution Around the Globe: A Guide

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There is value in exposing and shaming persecutors. And embarrassing government officials whose policies undermine the right and opportunity of people of faith to live their beliefs.

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The military leaders in charge of Myanmar have executed four democracy activists whom it had accused of committing "terror acts".

The UN has condemned the executions as "depraved".

They are the latest measures the regime has taken to suppress opposition since it seized power in February 2021.

Who is running the country?

General Min Aung Hlaing - commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, or military, is in charge.

He and his junta (group of military leaders) took charge after ousting the elected, civilian government.

He declared a state of emergency but has promised a "free and fair" election in the future.

Min Aung Hlaing is the leader of the coup

Since then, Gen Hlaing has received international condemnation and sanctions for the military's alleged role in the suppression of human rights and attacks on ethnic minorities.

A human rights group, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), says the regime's security forces has killed more than 2,100 people since the coup.

The junta has also imposed several prison sentences on former prime minster Aung San Suu Kyi.

Who are the people the regime has executed?

Four male activists were executed following secret trials. They were accused of helping insurgents to fight Myanmar's army.

Among them were democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw,

Prominent pro-democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, or Ko Jimmy (pictured here in 2012), was one of the four executed

Amnesty International has called it "another example of Myanmar's atrocious human rights record." It says there are 100 other people awaiting execution, having been sentenced for similar offences.

How else has the junta responded to democracy activists?

After last year's coup, opposition activists formed the Campaign for Civil Disobedience (CDM) and has been organising strikes and mass protests.

The military has responded with live fire, water cannons and rubber bullets.

Local militias calling themselves People's Defence Forces, or PDFs, have attacked military convoys and assassinated officials.

Protesters armed with rudimentary weapons take cover from the police in a demonstration in March, 2021

The government has carried out violent reprisals, including the torture and killing of 40 civilians in Sagaing district.

Why did the junta jail Aung San Suu Kyi?

Aung San Suu Kyi became world-famous in the 1990s for campaigning to restore democracy. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991.

In 2015, she led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to victory in Myanmar's first openly-contested election in 25 years.

However, the military ousted her in the February 2021 coup and put her under house arrest.

The generals had backed the opposition party, which demanded a re-run of the vote claiming widespread fraud. However, the election commission said there was no evidence to support this claim.

In April 2022, the 76-year-old Ms Suu Kyi was sentenced to five years in jail on corruption charges, in a secret trial.

She had already been sentenced to six years in jail for violating the country's official secrets act, possessing illegal walkie-talkies and publishing information that may "cause fear or alarm".

Myanmar coup: How did we get here?

She still faces 10 other corruption charges, each carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years.

How has the international community responded to the junta's rule?

The United Nations has warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, with "an intensification of violence and a rapid rise in poverty".

The US, UK and European Union have imposed sanctions on military officials.

Where is Myanmar?

Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is in South East Asia. It neighbours Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, China and India.

It has a population of about 54 million, most of whom are Burmese speakers. The biggest city is Yangon (Rangoon), but the capital is Nay Pyi Taw.

The country gained independence from Britain in 1948. It was ruled by the armed forces from 1962 until 2011, when a new government began ushering in a return to civilian rule.

The ruling military changed the name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989 and "Myanmar" has been increasingly used since then.

The main religion is Buddhism. There are many ethnic groups in the country, including Rohingya Muslims.

Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh following an army crackdown in 2017.

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Myanmar: Who are the rulers who have executed democracy campaigners?

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The military regime in Myanmar is ruthlessly suppressing opposition groups following its 2021 coup.

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In 2019, the Burmese government continued to commit widespread and egregious religious freedom violations, particularly against Rohingya Muslims. Ethnic‐​driven conflict and degradation of other civil rights often coincide with religious differences, thereby severely restricting freedom of religion or belief.

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Myanmar coup: What led to the military seizing power? - BBC News

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Ruth Zimbler was just 10 years old when she watched the Nazis burn down her synagogue in Austria. As the flames blazed, her great aunt asked the firefighters on the scene why they were just standing there. "We have orders to let the synagogue burn," they said.

The targeted attacks towards Zimbler's family that night, just for being Jewish, did not stop there. Her apartment was stripped bare of everything but the furniture and a pair of candlesticks that her family used on Shabbat.

This horrific day became known as Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass." It was wave of antisemitic violence coordinated by the Nazi regime that wrecked havoc on Jewish life in Nazi Germany.

Nazis vandalized Jewish homes, burned down hundreds of synagogues and shattered the glass in storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses - hence the name "Kristallnacht." The Night of Broken Glass was a turning point for Jews in Germany.

In the aftermath of Kristallnact, the Nazi regime ordered police to arrest 30,000 Jewish men. They were sent to concentration camps and many of these men did not make it out alive.

In December of 1938, approximately one month after Kristallnacht, Zimbler's parents sent Ruth and her 6-year-old brother, Walter, on the first Kindertransport out of Vienna, an organized rescue effort that took place nine months before the outbreak of World War II.

Kristallnacht is commemorated each year on November 9-10 with 2021 marking the 83rd anniversary. To this day, Zimbler says she still feels the glass from the windows crunching under her feet.

As a 93-year-old, Zimbler takes every opportunity to share her story.

"I think the only way to overcome (antisemitism) is by education. I think that you have to tell the story and you'll have to make people understand it," she said.

Antisemitism continues to haunt the Jewish community. 2020 was the third-highest year for antisemitic incidents against American Jews since the Anti-Defamation League started tracking the data in 1979. The past three annual reports have included two of its highest tallies.

"What we're seeing is that people aren't even able to identify antisemitism anymore," says Oren Segal, the vice president of the Center on Extremism at the ADL. "That's when you know it has become so normalized, so much part of our public discussion and online discourse. And that's when it's really dangerous."

Segal blames social media for the normalization of antisemitism. "The ability of disinformation and conspiracies to animate (antisemitism) has become a real issue."

Rony Alfandary, author of "Postmemory, Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Ghosts," believes the rise in antisemitism is especially traumatic for Holocaust survivors and leaves the Jewish community with a collective sense of generational trauma.

Postmemory, as Alfandary defines it, is the revelation that what's influencing your life is something that happened long before you were born. It can add to the sense of trauma the Jewish community experiences when there is a rise in antisemitic events.

"It's like living a part of a ghost life, a life where you are a participant without having known the other characters in life, but somehow feeling that you are living their lives," Alfandary said. "Unless you become aware of (postmemory) through therapy, or other creative means, it does turn into pathological symptoms, making you repeat particular patterns of behavior, obsessive behavior or other emotional difficulties."

Alfandary says the Holocaust shows how deeply human evil can penetrate society. "The one thing that I carry with me as a torch is how important it is for us to view one another as equals. ... Whenever we feel threatened by somebody who's different, we need to be able to recognize it, the way that fear motivates us, and transform that fear into an acceptance of the other, rather than rejection," he shared.

In order to combat modern day antisemitism, Alfandary says it's important to not be insular. "We need to reach out and go into those dangerous places and talk to the people who feel threatened by our identity and make that effort through education from a very early age."

"In 2021, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when we see that antisemitic tropes and narratives are more easily accessible than arguably in any other time in human history that should give us pause." Segal says. "It suggests that we have a lot more to learn about the impact of our history, and that there are people who are looking to exploit that."

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Holocaust survivor reflects on antisemitism rise 83 years after Kristallnacht

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Ruth Zimbler was just 10 years old when she watched the Nazis burn down her synagogue in Austria. As the flames blazed, her great aunt asked the firefighters on the scene why they were just standing there. "We have orders to let the synagogue burn," they said.

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Article 18 protects a person's right to practice a certain religion or believe a set of ideals without persecution. A human has full authority of their own religious teachings.

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"The Jews of Budapest live in an atmosphere of fear and terror. Anti-Semitic acts take place every day, in the streets, on the trains. The Fascists attack Jewish stores, synagogues. The situation is becoming very serious."

pg. 9

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"On the seventh day of Passover, the curtain finally rose: the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community."

pg. 10

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"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

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"The same day, the Hungarian police burst into every Jewish home in town: a Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. Everything had to be handed over to the authorities, under penalty of death."

pgs. 10-11

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"Christians in Kachin State, in the north of the country, are especially exposed to persecution. Due to the ongoing fighting, more than 100,000 people—mostly Christian—are living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, most of them for years, and humanitarian access to them is blocked. Fighting continues as well in neighboring Shan State, which has a large minority of Christians, especially in the north. Chin State, which is predominantly Christian, has also been the site of a great deal of conflict."

https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/myanmar/

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Pressure on Christians has slowly increased and converts face strong pressure from their family and community. Rebel groups are active in Wa State, and many churches have been forcibly closed. Buddhist extremists maintain that to be Burmese-the majority ethnic group in Myanmar-is to be Buddhist, so there is intense pressure on all religious minorities, including Christians. The army also maintains tight control over the government in Myanmar, restricting and minimizing the rights of Christians.

Communities that aim to remain "Buddhist only" make life for Christian families impossible by not allowing them to use community water resources. Some church groups experience opposition, too, especially in rural areas, or if they are known for proselytizing. Christians often meet in homes or business places; otherwise, they risk losing their land and churches that could be forcibly taken. Children of Christians can also face discrimination from teachers and bullying by other children. The government tries to act against radical Buddhist monks, but sends mixed signals. In the past year, it became even clearer that radical monks enjoy the support of the army.

Myanmar's score increased two points, but the country actually went down one rank on the list. This is partly because the violence score decreased slightly, even as scores in other spheres of life increased. Due to ongoing fighting, it is very difficult to obtain accurate reports on faith-based attacks against Christians and churches.

How Christians are suffering

In predominantly Christian states like Kachin State, Karen State or in Northern Shan, even well-established historical churches are being attacked. Fighting increased in 2018, adding thousands more to the IDP camps that are already ill-equipped to provide for the huge numbers of people. Due to intense fighting in Kachin and Shan State, more than 100,000 Christians have been forced to flee their homes and are living in camps where they have been denied access to food and healthcare because they are not Buddhists.

In daily life, converts are persecuted by their Buddhist, Muslim or tribal families and communities. Christians in rural areas additionally suffer from the brutal and almost forgotten long-term war the Burmese army is fighting against insurgency groups, especially in the north.

Examples

In March 2019, Human Rights Watch published a report about how predominantly Christian Kachin girls and women are trafficked and sold as brides to China (" Give us a baby, and we'll let you go ").

In January and February 2019, one pastor and one church elder disappeared in Rakhine State, allegedly abducted and then killed by the insurgent Arakan Army. The elder's body was found, but the whereabouts of the pastor remain unknown.

In most schools, all pupils-including non-Buddhists-are required to recite Buddhist teaching or prayers before classes begin.

Converts from Buddhism are discriminated against in various ways. In one report, a teacher refused to give a Christian student a list of questions provided to others in preparation for tests. In another case, when a family sold a plot of land, the earnings were distributed to all siblings of the family except the convert.

Population and number of Christian statistics: Johnson T M and Zurlo G A, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, accessed April 2019).

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Pressure on Christians has slowly increased and converts face strong pressure from their family and community. Rebel groups are active in Wa State, and many churches have been forcibly closed. Buddhist extremists maintain that to be Burmese-the majority ethnic group in Myanmar-is to be Buddhist, so there is intense pressure on all religious minorities, including Christians.