Many American Jews had family members die in the Holocaust, making Tuesday’s Holocaust Remembrance Day an important date for them.

Members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and the Jewish Student Union led a “Walk to Remember” on Tuesday in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, in which participants toured campus in silence while wearing signs that said “Never Forget” and painted the rock on Farm Lane.

Although Holocaust Remembrance Day focuses on what happened to Jews during World War II, it serves as a symbol for the genocides and discrimination that occur around the world today.

The genocide in Darfur once was a hot-button political issue, but most countries forgot the region’s problems as the economy worsened.

Naturally, nations must ensure the well-being of their citizens, and issues within one’s borders are more pressing than those outside of them.

Never forget what is happening in the world and what is going on once you leave the confines of your country.

There still is a genocide in Darfur and just because we don’t hear about it more often doesn’t mean it is over. Just because those aren’t U.S. citizens doesn’t mean they aren’t connected to the U.S.

Jews who celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day in the U.S. might not have been in the Holocaust, but they know people who were. Families of victims in Darfur reside here — Darfur certainly is a matter of concern to them. When has the health and safety of human beings ever not been a concern? Washington has told us repeatedly that if there is no national interest, then there is no concern for us.

But then you end up with situations like the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died.

It is written again so it is not forgotten.

Still, there are people who deny the Holocaust ever occurred. There are pictures, personal documents, video, records of inmates from Nazi death camps — what more could people want? There are even survivors, and if the Holocaust weren’t true, then these 90-year-old survivors are surely committed to lies.

And when people lie about the Holocaust there are records from the Holocaust to disprove such lies.

In 2008, Ken Waltzer, director of Jewish Studies at MSU, and other researchers foiled a memoir about a romance in a Holocaust concentration camp by using maps of the Schleiben concentration camp and camp records.

The memoir, called “Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived,” had its publication canceled following Waltzer’s findings.

Records, pictures, videos. Those things will help us never forget.

But don’t let that be all we have to left of the people of Darfur and victims of other genocides.

Editor’s Note: Editorial board member Zack Colman also is a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity.