Tuesday 27 January 2015

Today's Holocaust Memorial Day is more important than ever

The passage of 70 years since the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on 27 January 1945 has rendered those events no less unthinkable. For my part I have not yet been to Auschwitz but do plan to go. My trip to Jerusalem a few years ago moved me tremendously, most particularly the visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum http://www.yadvashem.org
Many have uttered the words ‘never again’ - but recent atrocities in Iraq, Kurdistan, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur are reminders. 
Recently in France and Belgium Anti Semitism has seen Jews murdered by terrorists simply because of who they were. Across France armed police stand guard outside Jewish schools.
Our best defence against this poisonous ideology is education, and I support the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust; the Trust’s mission is to educate young people in Britain from every background about the Holocaust and its meaning for us today. I know they are working with several Tynedale schools very successfully.

Spend a moment today to reflect on what happened 70 years and more ago. 
More details of why this matters here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11367593/Britain-must-confront-the-anti-Semites.html