I attended the service to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day at Leeds Town Hall yesterday afternoon. The service is held annually on the Sunday nearest the 27th January which was the date the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp was liberated by the Allies in 1945. The event is a highly emotional event not only focusing on the Holocaust but on more recent genocides such as those in Bosnia, Dhaffur, Cambodia and Rwanda.
It was an opportunity to remember the 6 million people who were murdered in the Holocaust, including Jews, homosexuals, Roma, the Disabled, Communists and Socialists. We must also remember the thousands of people who have died in atrocities carried out after the war when we reflect on mans inhumanity to man.
The growth of extremism, whether from the left or the right, secular or religious, must constantly be challenged by us all as failure to do so has a corrupting and toxic effect on communities which allows this murderous activity to go on unchecked.
The event had readings and performances from local schools while the seven commitment to remember the Holocaust were read out under an encompassing message of the Legacy for Hope. Perhaps the most touching of the readings came from Iby Knil, a survivor of Auschwitz Birkenau with her poem "I was there." This should be compulsory reading for those on the toxic extreme right including the BNP amongst whom there are Holocaust deniers - including their beloved Leader Nick Griffin who failed to explain on Question Time how he had came to hold those views. Perhaps not surprisingly our own toxic BNP Councillor Chris Beverley was nowhere to be seen -as usual! I suspect he is not particularly supportive of the event.
Holocaust Memorial Day will be formally recognised on Tuesday. I hope local residents will take a moment to reflect on the Holocaust and other atrocities and to pledge to do all they can to avoid such evil occurring again.
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