Today marks the the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. More than a million people, mostly Jews, were murdered at the biggest of the Nazi death camps during the Second World War.

Today in The Conversation Canada, Robert Jan van Pelt of the University of Waterloo explains how Jan. 27 came to be chosen as the day of official commemoration of Auschwitz’s liberation by the Red Army — and points out that Jews themselves weren’t heavily involved in the selection of the date.

Instead, he writes, many Jews consider Yom HaShoah in April as a more appropriate time to mark the liberation. They already use the occasion to grieve and remember all of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and to honour the survivors.

A story we published late last week is also tied to this important commemoration. Denis Monneuse of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) penned a powerful piece on his past interviews of death camp survivors and how they used various coping mechanisms to move on from the horrors of the Holocaust.

Also today:

• The legacy of anti-Black racism: The public health crisis of racial trauma
• Canada’s claim that it champions human rights is at odds with its mining practices
• California depends on prison labour to deal with climate disasters — Canada must avoid a similar model
• Online platforms risk becoming ideological echo chambers that undermine meaningful dialogue

All the best,