'Whatever your politics, we must urgently learn the lessons from the Holocaust'

Mirror

John Howell MP and Tulip Siddiq MP
27 JAN 2021

 

Jews alighting from a train in the Nazis' Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in 1944 (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

 

As Members of Parliament who enter the House of Commons via different lobbies, we are no strangers to working with our differences. On some occasions, however, is it important for all Britons to see their representatives join hands and January 27 – Holocaust Memorial Day – is one of those moments.

Speaking as a Christian and a Muslim, respectively, we both know that marking Holocaust Memorial Day is more important than ever. Commemorating the millions of people who were murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur is vital for us to learn where persecution based on faith and identity can lead.

At Auschwitz, Holocaust Survivors Plead ‘Never Forget’

The New Yourk Times

By Joanna Berendt 

Published Jan. 27, 2020

Updated   Jan. 28, 2020 

Organizers sought to put a spotlight on the stories of survivors, as this may be the last time that such a large number will be able to gather in one place.

Holocaust survivors at the Auschwitz concentration camp during ceremonies on Monday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.Credit...Janek Skarzynski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU, Poland — They wore scarves emblazoned with their prisoner numbers, the same ones tattooed on their arms. Many were frail, walking only with the support of friends or relatives

And as they slowly made their way, one by one, to what had been the wall of death, where thousands of prisoners were lined up for summary execution, it was a vivid reminder that before long the last eyewitnesses to the crimes that took place in Auschwitz will be gone.