Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK takes place annually on 27th January– and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust held an event in parliament recently as part of a series of events giving MPs a chance to hear about some of the events the Trust has planned for 27th January 2017.
The Holocaust is one of the most horrific episodes in human history, when millions of Jewish people were inhumanly and systematically murdered for their racial and religious identities.
It is crucially important that we never forget these terrible events – and it serves as a reminder that anti-Semitism is unfortunately still very much alive in Europe. In recent months, there have been a number of news stories about anti-Semitism in Britain, and there has been a worrying rise in reported incidents. It was therefore very reassuring to see that there were MPs present at this event from across the political spectrum, an indication that while there is still work to be done on eliminating anti-Semitic prejudice, there is determination from many people in Britain to learn from this dark episode in history.
The work of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust serves to mark these events so that we can learn from them, and work to prevent similar atrocities from ever happening again. This is part of the mission of the Holocaust Memorial Trust, which now also serves to commemorate other genocides, such as that which occurred in Rwanda.
I will be following the work of the trust over the coming months as it prepares for the next Memorial Day.