Yesterday, it was the emotionally-charged international ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

That event is now enshrined as Holocaust Memorial Day in honour not only of the 1.1 million Jews murdered here but of all six million Jews and five million others executed at all those synonyms for cruelty – Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka, Sobibor, Buchenwald…

There was scarcely a dry eye in this airport-sized marquee yesterday as three prominent survivors delivered passionate pleas for more than mere remembrance. ‘We do not want our past to be our children’s future,’ declared Roman Kent. ‘That is the key to my existence.’ As he tried to repeat those words, his voice gave way and the tears came forth.

Regaining his composure, Mr Kent went on to attack not only those who seek to deny the Holocaust but also the casual, unthinking language of daily life.

‘It has been routine to use the word “lost” when referring to loved ones,’ he said.

‘Six million Jews? They were not “lost”. They were murdered. Those that died did not “perish” but were murdered. By using sanitized words, we are helping the deniers.’

He concluded that he would like to add an eleventh commandment to the Old Testament list: ‘You should never, never be a bystander!’

Seventy years on, the world is faced with another horror in the form of growing radical Islamist ideology, An American philanthropist and president of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder. Delivered a thought provoking speech saying.

‘But after the recent events in Paris and around the world I cannot ignore what is happening today. Jews are targeted in Europe once again because they are Jews.

‘There are mass demonstrations with thousands of people shouting death threats to the state of Israel and to Jews.

‘It happened so slowly and it all seemed so unimportant that few people paid any attention. Until now, when Europe suddenly awoke to find itself surrounded by anti-Semitism again and it looks more like 1933 than 2015. Once again, young Jewish boys are afraid to wear yarmulkes on the streets of Paris and Budapest and London and even Berlin.’ At the root of it all, he said, were ‘lies about Israel’.

He went on: ‘We all learned that when you tell a lie three times and there is no response, then the lie becomes the truth.’

As we remember the lost, it is time we stand together - whatever our faith, whatever our creed, whatever our politics and we stand united in our resolve to fight prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.



By Alonge Femi

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