VANK, a cyber diplomatic mission in South Korea, is implementing a global campaign against racism among Asians around the world.

The tragedy of Auschwitz began with hatred and the war crimes committed by Nazi like the Holocaust started from racism. Therefore, if we do not stop the crimes of racial hatred and discrimination around the world caused by the COVID-19, a second Holocaust tragedy could come back to humanity.

Since the COVID-19 started, hate crimes and racial discrimination against Asians have spread around the world, including the Americas and Europe.

Not only Chinese but also Koreans, Japanese, and Southeast Asians are being discriminated against or hated in the Americas and Europe.

Around the world, Asians are subjected to racist words and physical assault on the street without any reason, and also students are banned from the schools and forced to transfer to another school.

Asians are treated as a virus that carries the disease of death just because they are Asians, and also are targeted for hate crimes such as racist words and physical attack.

The U.S.-based Asia Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) has created a website of Stop American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate to deal with the violence and crimes against Asians that have increased since the recent coronavirus outbreak.

On April 15, they said that more than 1,500 cases have been reported through the website since mid-March.

<Stop AAPI, the website that reports hate crimes and discrimination>
– http://www.asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org/stop-aapi-hate

Even in New York, an Asian woman was attacked by hydrochloric acid.

On April 23, John Cho, a Korean-American Hollywood actor, criticized the racial discrimination and hate crimes against Asians in the United States, triggered by the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

In an article in the Los Angeles Times (LAT), he called for the eradication of racism caused by COVID-19, saying that Asian Americans are not conditional Americans, but fellow Americans.

“Infectious diseases remind us that our Asian community is conditional,” he said. “For one moment, we are Americans, but then we become foreigners who spread the virus.”

“Don’t reduce or think of the hatred phenomena against Asian as far away. It’s happening close to you,” he added. “If you see it on the street and hear it at work, please stand up for your colleague, the American.”

On April 26, a Korean couple was subjected to racial discrimination, sexual harassment and assault on a subway couch in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The problem is that the German police, who are supposed to handle the racist crimes, are passively responding to the case. Due to this, the number of racial discrimination and crimes such as swearing and assault on Asian communities has not reduced.

COVID-19 is not the only one that humans have to fight. We need to make an efforts to solve the problems of racism against Asian in the world.

To respond with this, VANK, a Korean cyber diplomatic mission, is fighting racism against Asian, triggered by COVID-19.

To do this, the VANK is launching a global campaign to make five of anti-racism posters and spread them around the world through social media. The slogan of the campaign is “Holocaust did not suddenly fall from the sky!”

Four of the five posters made by the VANK show a primary school student as a symbol of the next generation, carrying the balloon with messages of ‘Corona virus rumors, Hatred of Asians, and Racial discrimination, Remember how holocaust had begun. Holocaust did not fall suddenly from the skies’ with a background of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In addition, the other poster shows a monument that the messages of ‘Corona virus rumors, Hatred of Asians, and Racial discrimination, Remember how holocaust had begun. Holocaust did not fall suddenly from the skies’ are written, with another monument to commemorate the tragedy of Nazi and Holocaust and not to be repeated again.

Originally, there was no such phrase in the monument, but the VANK virtually put it on the poster to contain a warning message that the second Holocaust tragedy could happen if it is failed to prevent the spread of racism caused by COVID-19.

The worst war crimes in humankind history, in which around 17 million people were killed by the Nazi, began with racial discrimination. The tragedy of Auschwitz, in which more than a million people were killed for no reason, also began with discrimination, hatred and oppression.

We have to prevent the racial and xenophobic crimes that have led to the Holocaust and Auschwitz from appearing again with the spread of infectious diseases in the 21st century.

Please join the VANK’s global campaign and change the world!

The VANK is spreading the campaign posters to the world through a photo-sharing website, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/vank1999/albums/7215771316634382).
Those who want to participate in the campaign can download the five posters and upload them on their social media.