“Never Again” is a Moral Discipline
January 26, 2026
On Tuesday, January 27, the world will observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where an estimated 1.1 million people were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime between 1942 and 1945. When Allied forces entered the camp, they encountered emaciated people suffering from disease and starvation. Barely able to speak, survivors recounted what had taken place. What they described was not random brutality, but deliberate, bureaucratic, and sustained dehumanization — a process that stripped people of dignity, rights, and ultimately life.
Remembering history is never only about the past. It is also about recognizing patterns of human behavior so we can work toward a better future. This year it feels especially urgent to remember. Over the past several weeks, events in Minnesota have drawn international attention as our federal government has deployed several thousand agents to the Minneapolis metro area to enforce immigration policies. On Saturday, January 24, ICE agents fatally shot Alex Pretti as he tried to help a woman who had fallen to the ground during a confrontation between agents and protesters. This occurred just two weeks after Nicole Good was killed while serving as a community observer during an enforcement operation. These tragedies have unfolded amid growing public concern about the expansion of government power and violations of people’s constitutional rights.
As we mourn this tragic loss of life, we must also recognize the pattern of dehumanization underlying current events. At the Wassmuth Center, we call this progression the Spiral of Injustice — a process in which fear-based rhetoric leads to discriminatory policies, which in turn normalize coercion and violence against entire communities. We must pay attention when groups are portrayed as threats to public order or national identity; when extraordinary enforcement measures become routine; when militarized responses to dissent are called necessary; and when legal authorities expand faster than public accountability. These dynamics mirror the early stages of systems that gradually erode humanity, reducing people to problems to be managed rather than neighbors to be protected. Holocaust remembrance exists precisely to sharpen our moral vision at such moments.
We can learn a lot from history about how the Spiral of Injustice devolves. The Nazi regime did not begin with death camps. It began with a series of social and legal measures that systematically marked certain groups as outsiders. The path to Auschwitz started with propaganda that framed Jews, communists, LGBTQ people, individuals with disabilities, and other minorities as threats to society. Identification badges became mandatory, visibly signaling who belonged and who did not. Laws stripped Jews of citizenship and forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews, formalizing exclusion into the legal code. Jewish-owned businesses were boycotted and seized. What began as discriminatory rhetoric and policy escalated as violence was reframed as protection and exclusion as loyalty. This gradual normalization desensitized people to harm, making more extreme acts possible. The recent surge of federal immigration enforcement and the resulting deaths of civilians in Minneapolis and at detention centers across the country remind us that no societies are immune to such spirals.
The atrocities of that era reshaped the world order, and the horror at those grave human rights violations gave rise to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a monumental effort to collectively say never again. Yet as the years pass and fewer survivors remain to share their warnings, the responsibility of remembrance becomes more urgent. Bearing witness to the Holocaust helps us identify warning signs today. We must learn to recognize the language, imagery, and narratives rooted in exclusionary ideologies that continue to circulate.
Remember those who were murdered, reflect on the path that led there, and then commit to interrupting the Spiral of Injustice where you live. Check on a neighbor. Join an interfaith gathering. Deepen your understanding through a book. Speak with elected officials. Practice nonviolent responses. We must understand the stakes and act.
Stay in community. Stay engaged. Stay aligned with your values. Never again is a moral discipline. Each generation must decide whether dignity will remain an abstraction or become a guiding principle. We honor the victims of the past not only by remembering their suffering, but by insisting — here and now — that fear, hatred, and state power must never eclipse our shared humanity.