Jim Murphy

Holocaust Memorial Day

On 27 January, millions of people in Europe and all over the world will commemorate the Holocaust.  27 January is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, and has been designated by the UN as the International Day of Commemoration to honour the victims of the Holocaust.

The International Day of Commemoration is an opportunity for people everywhere to reflect on the Holocaust, and on other more recent atrocities.   It is an opportunity to educate people about the Holocaust, and its lessons for the present day.  It is only by remembering the horrific crimes, racism and victimisation of both the Holocaust and more recent genocides that we can hope to prevent such tragedies from recurring.  This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, as organised by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, is “Imagine… remember reflect react.”  Hundreds of events will take place in local communities and schools across the UK,  with the national Commemoration being held at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 27th January. My colleague Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, will be attending, along with 1600 other guests, including Holocaust and genocide survivors, young people from Liverpool, dignitaries and ambassadors.

The Holocaust was a uniquely tragic event in human history and the lessons are of universal relevance, with implications for us all.  The Government is strongly committed to preserving the lessons of the Holocaust.  We are committed to promoting Holocaust education and remembrance, and to combating all forms of racism and anti-semitism.  This year we will be stepping up our efforts in this area, working even more closely with key partners such as the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.  We want to do what we can to make the International Day of Commemoration even more international:  as a world leader in Memorial Day events (holding around 500 commemorative events in the UK last year), we are keen to share best practice with European and international partners, providing guidance and practical support where needed. 

We also strongly support the work of the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), of which the UK is a founding and active member.  The ITF brings together government representatives and NGOs from 25 countries and funds projects aimed at promoting greater knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust across the world.  It also uses its influence to issue statements on current affairs.  In recent years the ITF has issued statements urging the international community to do more to halt the atrocities in Darfur; rejecting Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s comment that the Holocaust was a ‘myth’; and urging the Czech authorities to prevent a planned neo-nazi demonstration in Prague’s old Jewish Quarter, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

This year the UK will also take on the important task of holding the Presidency of the International Commission.  The International Commission, which has 11 members, runs the International Tracing Service (ITS), which is home to the world's largest archive of Holocaust era personal documents. Since the 1940s the ITS, based in the German spa town of Bad Arolsen, has been tracing civilians caught up in the cataclysm of WWII and documenting their fate.   Our responsibilities as President will include organising and hosting the annual conference of the International Commission, and ensuring that the recent decision to make the Bad Arolsen archives available for historical research is implemented successfully.

I am deeply committed to our work on Holocaust education, remembrance and research and want to ensure that terrible crimes of the Holocaust are neither forgotten nor repeated. The Holocaust must have a permanent place in the world’s collective memory.  Together, we must - and will - do all we can to ensure that history never repeats itself.  There is no place in today’s world for racism, hatred and discrimination.

This article was first published by www.totallyjewish.com on 24/01/08.

Posted at 12:21 25 January 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[3]