"This year, on Holocaust Memeorial Day, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps of Auschwitz- Birkenau an the ending of the Second World War. It is right that we remember brutal mass murders committed by the Nazis, but in particular the slaughter of six million Jews by them during the war, a systematic attempt to wipe all Jewish people off the face of the earth, a crime unparallelled in human history, before or since. The sheer scale of the deaths run the risk of being seen as being dehumanising statistics, but it must never be forgotten that behind every murder is an individual human life, a father , a mother, a brother , a sister, a son , a daughter.
The victims of the holocaust deserve to be commemorated in their own right, and if there was no other reason, they deserve to be remembered each year. However, sadly, our need to learn the lessons of the Holocaust resonate equally clearly today and remain disturbingly relevant 80 years on. Since 1945 we have seen genocide reoccur in many different parts of the world such as Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia. Lessons have not been learned.
Anti-semitism is still prevalent in today's society, and has reared its ugly head in the streets of the UK, particularly in the last 18 months, including in Northern Ireland. The number of anti semitic incidents throughout the UK in 2024 was the second highest in our history. The cancer of this prejudice is still with us.
We should remember that the Holocaust was carried out not simply by use of terror, but by carefully thought out and ordered implementation, not just by a handful of fanatics but with the acquiescence and often direct involvement of what in other circumstances we would regard as ordinary unremarkable people. That is a critical warning from history. However, on this important day we should also remember and applaud the many individual heroes
and communities who played their part in defying the Nazis and protecting their proposed victims. Locally, we can think of the important role played by the safe refuge in Millisle, which became the home to a number of Kindertransport children directly the war, and survivors of Auschwitz in the immediate post war years. It is fitting that this history has been acknowledged by Millisle Primary with their Holocaust Memorial Graden.
As sadly the generation of Holocaust survivors, who have given first hand testimony of their experiences, is gradually drifting into history, it is important that we take up their mantle to ensure that commemoration remains undimmed. The lead givenby our sovereign King Charles III in visiting Aucschwitz this year is a shing example of leadership, as is the work of our children through the Lessons From Auschwitz project. It is vital that these projects continue inti the future, in all parts of the UK.
The mantle is passing to a new generation, and we must ensure not simply in words but in deeds the message of Never Again."