Holocaust events ‘more important than ever’ in face of mass killings 78 years on

A Holocaust survivor has spoken about why commemorating the 78th anniversary of the atrocity is particularly important amid mass killings which are still being committed around the world, including in Ukraine.

During a Holocaust Memorial Day event in central London attended by Cabinet ministers, MPs and faith leaders, Dr Martin Stern spoke about his wartime experience surviving horrific conditions in Netherlands Nazi camps.

He addressed an audience which included Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

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Holocaust survivor Dr Martin Stern speaking at the commemorative ceremony in St John’s Smith Square (James Manning/PA)

Speaking to the PA news agency at the Westminster event two days prior, Dr Stern said it saddened him that decades on genocides are still being committed around the world – but he still has hope for a brighter future.

“We have a gigantic task ahead,” he said. “Each of these memorial events can only do a small amount.

“The key to solving the problem of recurring genocides has to lie in the education of every human child, everywhere in the world, forever.

“It is a huge task, but not a hopeless one. The human race has made progress, but boy does it need to make more.”

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Candles were lit at a commemorative ceremony (James Manning/PA)

Speaking about Russia, Dr Stern said: “The biggest state on earth is ruled by a gangster.

“Not only do they not have democracy, they have allowed the direction of their country to be controlled exclusively by a gangster criminal.”

His father died in a separate camp in 1945, and his mother died due to an infection during childbirth in 1942.

Dr Stern described the moment police pulled him out of school when he was five years old, after his teacher had attempted to save him by pretending that he was not present.

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Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove, speaking at the commemorative ceremony at St John’s Smith Square in London (James Manning/PA)

Many speakers drew attention to people currently being persecuted en masse in countries including Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur in Sudan.

In a video message, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak showed support for the event and spoke about the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre which is being built next to Parliament.

Addressing survivors, Mr Sunak said: “Your message will stand immortalised in the memorial, your testimonies will be heard in the learning centre, and your call to fight hatred will echo eternally across the generations, so long after we are all gone, your truth will remain and humanity will never be allowed to forget.”

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Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, speaking at St John’s Smith Square in London (James Manning/PA).

He said: “Today the welfare and wellbeing and the very lives of Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Myanmar are in the hands of ordinary people, just as the security of millions of innocent men women and children right across Ukraine is today in jeopardy.

“Surely the time has come for ordinary men and women right across the globe to determine that never again means never again.”

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Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner speaking at the ceremony (James Manning/PA)

She said: “Holocaust Memorial Day feels more important than ever.

“The world is feeling quite fragile for a lot of people.

“Many of people are feeling under pressure from the cost of living crisis and from the war in Ukraine, and we know that in times of pressure extremism often flourishes.

“We know that incidents of anti Semitism have increased in the UK and other forms of hate crime still persist, so to have an annual Holocaust Memorial event where we are learning where hatred ultimately led when it wasn’t challenged is hugely important.”

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