Members of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association have taken part in several important events promoting peace and justice across the world in the last months of 2023. In 2024, the Association invites international volunteers to join the global struggle against racism and intolerance.
‘NEVER AGAIN’s representative Anna Tatar participated in a two-day seminar on ‘Current Forms of Antisemitism’ organized in Berlin by the European Network for Countering Antisemitism through Education (ENCATE) and the Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA) on 9-11 October 2023. It aimed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of contemporary debates surrounding antisemitism and the skills necessary to identify different forms of this phenomenon.
On 20-22 October 2023, Natalia Sineaeva, a ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association activist, attended the Rotary Positive Peace Activator Leadership Summit in Nagarkot, Nepal, together with 42 peace-builders from 25 countries and all continents. The Summit included academic sessions, strategic planning working groups, resilience conversations, and reflective practices. The participants shared and planned actions to build peace in their communities.
On 30-31 October, members of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Rafal Pankowski and Natalia Sineaeva visited Lumbini in Nepal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the birthplace of Sakyamuni Buddha, as guests of the Theravada Buddhist Community of Nepal. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited Lumbini on the same day. During meetings with monks and lay members of diverse faith communities, the representatives of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ emphasized the importance of inter-faith dialogue for world peace.
On 5 November, Natalia Sineaeva and Rafal Pankowski were invited as speakers at the public discussion organized by the Forum for Secular Bangladesh (Nirmul Committee) at the Supreme Court Auditorium in Dhaka on the occasion of the Bangladesh Constitution Day. They shared the experiences of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in the field of dealing with the past and, in particular, its successful campaign to include a ban on racist and fascist activities in the Polish Constitution. The Speaker of Bangladeshi Parliament Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and other prominent discussants welcomed the contribution of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ members to the event.
On 9-11 November, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association representatives participated in the international conference on ‘The Politics of Genocide Denial: Global Struggle towards Truth, Recognition and Justice’ at the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Drawing from the research conducted under the aegis of ‘NEVER AGAIN’, Rafal Pankowski presented a paper on ‘The Phenomenon of Multideniers: Denying the Holocaust and Cambodian Genocide’, Natalia Sineaeva spoke on ‘Holocaust Denial and Distortion and its Interconnectedness with National Identity: The Case Study of Moldova in Eastern Europe’. Other speakers at the conference included, among others, the friends of ‘NEVER AGAIN’: Dr Gregory H. Stanton (Founding President, Genocide Watch), Dr Elisa von Joeden-Forgey (Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention) and Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi (Presidency University, Kolkata).
Between 15 and 20 November, members of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ met and discussed future cooperation in the area of peace-building with universities and Rotary clubs in Dhaka and Chattogram (Bangladesh). The meetings were hosted by Professor of Buddhist Studies Biman Barua, Professor Mamun-Al-Mahtab and Rotarian Ranjan Barua.
On 15-17 November, Rafal Maszkowski participated on behalf of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in the international conference ‘Holocaust Distortion and Counter Strategies’ in Berlin, organized by the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Antisemitism and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in cooperation with the Topography of Terror (Germany).
On 21 November, members of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association Natalia Sineaeva and Rafal Pankowski presented the Association’s activities at a special meeting hosted in Dhaka by Shahriar Kabir, an eminent Bangladeshi writer and filmmaker, the founder of the Forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971. The meeting was followed by a screening of a documentary on the Bangladesh genocide.
Nosizo Zondo represented ‘NEVER AGAIN’ at the conference ‘Integration through Sport and Inclusion for Refugees in Europe for Sustainability’, which took place in Berlin on 23-24 November 2023. The conference was organized by the Fare Network in conjunction with partners in Greece, Italy, Germany and Finland. It was aimed at empowering women refugees with the necessary skills and knowledge for engaging in the creation of sports activities, and innovating capacity-building methods that aid civil society organizations collaborating with refugees.
In the near future, on 13-16 February 2024, delegates of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association are going to participate in the 11th International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action (ICPNA) to be held in Mumbai, India.
– ‘The range of topics and international events attended by the NEVER AGAIN Association in the recent months points to the global relevance of its message’ – said Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of ‘NEVER AGAIN’, Sociology Professor at Warsaw’s Collegium Civitas and Rotary Global Peace Fellow (Makerere University, Uganda, 2024-25). – ‘In 2024, we invite online volunteers to join our initiatives from all over the world, wherever you are, we welcome all backgrounds and cultures.’
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organization founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights across the world. It has actively participated in international civil society networks, including the Alliance Against Genocide (AAG), the European Network for Countering Antisemitism through Education (ENCATE), Facing Facts network, Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism (GADHE), and the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine and Against War (ENSU).
‘NEVER AGAIN’ can be contacted at info@neveragainassociation.org .
Additional information:
http://www.holocausteducation-asia.org
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
The latest edition of the ‘Brown Book’ on more than 300 pages describes cases of physical assaults on the basis of skin colour, language, or religion, as well as acts of verbal aggression. In addition, the report documents street demonstrations with slogans inciting hatred, acts of discrimination against minorities, and fascist banners displayed at football stadiums. Examples of hostility towards refugees from Ukraine can also be found therein.
The Association has unveiled the emblem of the anti-war campaign, authored by Witold Popiel, a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and inspired by the logo of ‘NEVER AGAIN’s long-term campaign ‘Music Against Racism’.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association invites musicians, record labels and promoters who are interested in releasing music tracks or videos as well as organising concerts with the promotional support of ‘Music Against War’ to get in touch via email: 
The National Media channel has over 250,000 subscribers. It produces an average of 100-150 broadcasts per month, some of them have tens of thousands of views.
Since the first days of the Russian invasion, the National Media broadcasts have presented refugees from Ukraine as a threat (including ‘biological’ threat) to the Polish society, denied the Ukrainians’ right to preserve their own national identity (demanding that they ‘polonize’ themselves), and questioned the Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine. The head of the National Media, Robert Bakiewicz, already in 2021 warned against ‘Ukrainian immigration’, which in his view would lead to an ‘ethnic replacement’ in Poland.
The project ‘Identifying and Countering Holocaust Distortion: Lessons for and from Southeast Asia’ has been conducted by ‘NEVER AGAIN’ since 2020. It deals with various forms of genocide distortion and denial spread in the region of Southeast Asia. The project draws on the regional experiences of the Second World War and further instances of genocide in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand to inspire critical memory discourses and develop capacities to counter Holocaust and genocide distortion in the region. The project’s participants included opinion-makers, faith leaders (such as Buddhist monks as well as Jewish and Muslim figures), academics, and the staff of museums and memorial sites, among others. The project’s activities have included research, seminars, publications, and awareness raising. The initiative has been developed in close cooperation with local supporters and partners of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in the countries of Southeast Asia.
Co-founder of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Rafal Pankowski participated in the Eradicate Hate Global Summit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) on 19-21 September 2022. The Summit is the most comprehensive anti-hate conference in the world. It unites experts and leaders from around the globe, who are dedicated to eradicating all forms of hate-fuelled violence. The mission of the Summit is to identify and implement effective solutions for collective change.
On another festival day a meeting was held with the rock band Strachy na Lachy (Empty Threats) at the information stand of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. For many years, this group has been involved in the activities of the ‘Music Against Racism’ campaign run by ‘NEVER AGAIN’. Krzysztof ‘Grabaz’ Grabowski, the leader of Strachy Na Lachy, explained his band’s involvement in support of the refugees from Ukraine after the outbreak of the war. Some of the musician’s family came from Volhynia (a previously Polish territory, now a region in Ukraine). In press interviews, ‘Grabaz’ emphasised the importance of having neighbours of different nationalities and how it can lead to outbursts of creativity: ‘If in some place different cultures coexist peacefully with each other, then they will undoubtedly develop that place and its culture’.
– ‘During our meeting with Strachy Na Lachy, we talked primarily about war and peace, about respect and prejudice in everyday life, about hate speech and how it can lead to violence. We asked the band to explain how music can create a better world,’ said Joanna Naranowicz, a representative of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association and the lead singer of the punk band Qulturka.
The ‘Lets’ Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’ tournament has been organised for over twenty years by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association at the Polish Woodstock/Pol’and’Rock Festival. In 2022 it was co-organized with the grass-roots football team FC GAN Pila and supported by FARE network and the Adidas Football Collective through its grassroots support programme. Tournament’s male and female participants jointly express their support for the ideas that guide the entire festival: peace, friendship and respect for diversity. This year, the message resonated particularly strongly with young players from Ukraine who had had to flee the cruelty of war.
During the Pol’and’Rock Festival, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association also organised educational workshops on volunteering and supporting refugees. At NEVER AGAIN’s information stand, there were also practical worskhops on designing anti-racist DIY sew-on patches and t-shirts with the use of stencils and paints. The resulting items of clothing with the message ‘Music Against Racism’ were presented to the participants!
According to the members of Human Rights, ‘The album <Plague> was recorded as a protest against political depravity and the epidemic of intolerance.’ The songs include reflections on ‘what attitudes people adopt in the face of a pandemic, war, dictatorship, lack of mutual respect and tolerance, aggression. It is not without reason that the word <plague> appears in the lyrics of every track.’
Human Rights is a hardcore punk band from Warsaw. For years, it has been supporting the Music Against Racism campaign of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. The band describes its work as ‘energetic music and positive and direct lyrics coming out of irritation at intrusive attempts to manipulate our lives only because of differences in sex, views, religion or nationality. So there is fire and fury, there is also some melody and catchy choruses about freedom, respect, compassion, tolerance.’
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association encourages musicians, record labels and promoters from all over the world who are interested in releasing music tracks or videos as well as organizing concerts with the promotional support of the Music Against Racism campaign to get in touch via email: