VOA常速英语2021--2021年的国际大屠杀纪念日（在线收听）

Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government. In January, we remember one of the darkest events in the history of humanity—the Holocaust, the systematic elimination of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Although there is understanding that the Holocaust coincided with the years of the Second World War, its origins began earlier. In truth, the beginnings of the Holocaust go back to the 1930s, when the Nazi Party came to power and the German government began to target those they deemed to be inherently inferior. Such people, mostly civilians, were rounded up, shut into ghettos, and deported to dozens of concentration or slave labor camps. Many people were shot and dumped into mass graves. By late 1941, a number of camps began the process of murder on a massive scale. Then, on January 20, 1942, at the so-called Wannsee Conference, Nazi leadership decided to formalize the implementation of the “Final Solution”: the systematic annihilation of a specific segment of the population as government policy: an atrocity perpetrated against the Jewish population.

以下是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。我们在1月份纪念人类历史上的其中一个最黑暗的事件：大屠杀。这是纳粹德国及其帮凶对犹太人进行的系统性的灭绝。尽管在很多人的了解中，大屠杀发生的时间与第二次世界大战重叠，但大屠杀的起源在大战之前就开始了。真实情况是，大屠杀可以追溯到20世纪30年代，当时纳粹党刚刚执政，德国政府开始攻击那些他们认为天生就低人一等的人。这些人大多数是平民，他们遭到围捕，被关进犹太人区，并被赶进集中营或苦役营。很多人遭到枪杀，被丢进乱葬坑。到1941年年底，有些集中营开始了大规模的屠杀行动。随后在1942年1月20日，纳粹领导人在所谓的“万湖会议”上决定正式实施“最终解决方案”：执行政府政策，对人口中一个特定群体进行系统性的灭绝，即对犹太人口实施暴行。

It was a part of the Second World War, yet it was separate from the German war effort. Indeed, the Final Solution often took precedence over the war effort: despite a desperate need for personnel and material on the front lines, no assets or supplies were diverted from death camp assignments. In the end, the “Final Solution” resulted in the deaths of six million Jews. Never before on such a scale in human history had genocide—the annihilation of an entire people--been implemented as government policy. International Holocaust Remembrance is a time to remember the people murdered in the Holocaust, not only to honor the dead but also to remind ourselves what unspeakable horrors humans are capable of perpetrating. “Never again,” humanity said as the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Yet in January, we also remember the victims of the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. As the Spanish philosopher George Santayana once wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.

大屠杀是第二次世界大战的一部分，但却与德国的战争努力相分隔。实际上，“最终解决方案”的优先程度经常超过战争努力：尽管前线迫切需要人员与物资，但拨给死亡营的资产或物资没有被调往前线。“最终解决方案”最终导致600万犹太人死亡。这也是人类历史上第一次将种族灭绝作为一项政府政策来执行，对整个民族进行如此规模的灭绝。“国际大屠杀纪念日”是纪念大屠杀死难者的日子。它不但纪念死者，还提醒我们注意人类能够犯下什么样的无以言状的可怕行径。联合国1948年通过《防止及惩治灭绝种族罪公约》时，人类发出了“永不再发生”的呼声。然而，我们却要在1月份同样纪念之后在柬埔寨、卢旺达、波斯尼亚和达尔富尔发生的种族灭绝的受难者。西班牙哲学家桑塔亚纳曾在文章中写道，“那些不能铭记过去的人注定要重蹈覆辙。”这是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。