It is with a sense of deep shock that the board and staff of the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation (SAHGF), representing the Holocaust & Genocide Centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, records its condolences to the families and community of the victims of the tragic attack on innocent members of Muslim congregations in Christchurch, New Zealand. The senseless act of hate which led to the murder and injury of members of the congregation attending prayers, contradicts all that Holocaust centres around the world stand for. All congregations no matter their faith should be able to worship in safety. The SAHGF through its programmes across South Africa teaches about the consequences of prejudice, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and homophobia, and the dangers of indifference, apathy and silence.


The SAHGF is dedicated to helping to transform society so that, in the words of the Foundation’s Patron, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, speaking at the opening of the Holocaust centre in Cape Town in 1999, “we can become more human, more gentle, more caring, more compassionate, valuing every person as being of infinite worth, so precious that we know such atrocities will never happen again and that the world will be a more humane place.”