On Holocaust Day, Don't Let History Repeat Itself

I am stepping out of the tram at Grönsakstorget in Sweden. It is cloudy and the temperature has fallen below zero. I looked towards the area where the Falun Gong practitioners usually stand to appeal for an end to the persecution that is taking place against Falun Gong as a practise and also against those who practise Falun Gong. Normally, there are only two or three persons present, peacefully practising the Falun Gong exercises or standing with a poster hanging in front of their chest, a poster that is exposing the crimes that the regime now commits in the worlds most populated country, China. Today it looks a little different outside the Chinese Consulate in Gothenburg. Along the pavement one can spot large banners with revealing texts and pictures. On the most clear one it reads, STOP THE GENOCIDE IN CHINA! The word genocide is written in red on a white background and there is a group of people standing in front of the banners in a long line. With a distance of approximately two and a half yards between each person, they stand quietly, peacefully and radiate a solemn seriousness.

They are practitioners of Falun Gong, the powerful qigong (exercises for refining one’s body) practise also known as Falun Dafa. Here they are now out in the cold weather to make their voices heard that is not allowed to be heard in the People's Republic of China.

To gain a deeper understanding on why they spend their Thursday afternoon here out in the cold weather, we need to go back in time.

The year is 1992 and the place is the city of Changchun, northeast of China. In the park one can see a qigong master stand and teach his practise that he has recently introduced to the public. Those who come and want to learn are instructed in five peaceful and very powerful exercises. The students sit on round mats on the ground with their legs folded on top of each other and with their eyes closed. They are doing the sitting meditation of Falun Gong. The qigong Master whose name is Li Hongzhi has already become well-known in the city. Many people are surprised by his friendly way and the wisdom of his teachings. They have listened to his lectures in which this man talks about the crucial importance of refining and improving one's character in order to gain results in one's practice. He says that the fundamental characteristics of a human being are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, and that in this cultivation practice one should strive to live in accordance with these characteristics in his daily life.

Falun Dafa soon spread like wildfire throughout China. This practise was like a breath of fresh air for those who had to endure the cruelty of the Cultural which dismissed all ideas of faith or belief. In just a few years the number of practitioners increased in many cities from a few to several thousand. Almost everyone knew someone who practised or someone in the family who practised Falun Gong. In the mornings one could see thousands of practitioners in the parks standing and practising the Falun Gong exercises together.

At this time the regime in China was pleased to see that so many of their citizens practised Falun Gong since it led to an improvement in health which in turn led to the countries medical care expense being significantly reduced. The media reported on many Falun Gong activities and even a large quantity of people within the higher strata of the Chinese Communist Party practised it.

Then in 1999 came the message: Falun Gong was to be banned. During the night of July 20th Falun Gong contact persons were suddenly arrested in several provinces without legal explanation. Two days later Falun Gong was officially banned; practising or being in possession of a Falun Gong book was now liable to incur severe punishment and arrest.

How could this happen? We found that the responsible one at the top of the Communist party was the tyrant Jiang Zemin. He had considered the development of Falun Gong and the large number of people who started to practise it. He knew that the book Zhuan Falun, which consisted of the collected teachings from Li Hongzhi’s lectures, had reached best-seller status already in 1996. The year before the ban there were large investigations to find out how many Chinese citizens who actually practised Falun Gong and these revealed that the figure was 70-100 million.
These facts caused the former dictator to loose his head. He went against his own country’s constitution and over night he carried out the ban of the popular cultivation way called Falun Gong.

In what many people think could have been frustration and jealousy, he made it clear: Falun Gong is to be eliminated in three months. He created China’s Gestapo, the “610-Office” with the mission to carry out a policy of elimination. But he did not expect such strong resistance and we are not talking about resistance in terms of violence on the contrary practitioners stood adamantly like mountains and refused to let anyone take their belief away from them that there is nothing wrong with adhering to the principles taught in Falun Gong, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance”. Despite cruel torture in labour camps and prisons, whilst also facing the regimes massive effort to flood the country and the world with their hate propaganda Falun Gong practitioners have now resisted for five years against one of the most brutal persecutions in history a persecution that does not even spare children.

This is why they stand there in Grönsakstorget in Gothenburg, far away from China. But the distance is reduced, as one stands here outside the Chinese Consulate. Today the number of people present is unusually large because it is the memorial day of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War. During such a day there are many people who express words such as “the Holocaust shall never happen again”. Many people talk about this, yet one question remains: who is making sure that such a thing shall never occur again. So far, the practitioners of Falun Gong have not seen anyone take the responsibility. Thus, they have taken action themselves. Falun Gong practitioners make it their role to inform people of what is taking place in China, by persistent, peaceful protests, always undisturbed, always quiet. Such activities are meant to send out one clear message: The truth will constantly be exposed until the day when the persecution ends.