
The 27th January 2025 marks Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD).
The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp complex, and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.
The Holocaust was the attempt by the Nazis and their collaborators to destroy all Jewish people in Europe. It took place across 22 different countries with the active participation of some of the citizens of those countries. Building upon centuries of antisemitism, persecution of Jewish people began as soon as the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933.
Classification, dividing people into ‘us’ and ‘them’, followed with the Nuremberg laws which discriminated against Jews, stripping them of their German citizenship. They were forced to wear yellow stars, a visual manifestation of the hatred which escalated to dehumanisation, polarisation, and persecution. Ultimately it led to the extermination of 6 million Jewish people.
Whole families and whole communities were wiped out in the Holocaust, and in many cases, the names of those murdered remain unknown.
Holocaust Memorial Day also commemorates subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur that have occurred since 1946.
The Holocaust was one of the defining episodes in history and shook the foundations of civilisation. It prompted the first international coordinated response to such crimes and led to the establishment of the new international crime of genocide.
80 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, antisemitism (anti-Jewish hatred) has increased significantly in the UK and globally following the 7 October 2023 attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Today, sadly, many communities in the UK, of different faiths, are feeling vulnerable, faced with the growing hostility and suspicion of others that is rising across the country.
80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, we must become the generations who carry forward the legacy of the witnesses, remember those who were murdered, and challenge those who distort or deny the past, or who discriminate and persecute today.
We can all mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 and commit to making a better future for us all.
Clive Harriss, Vice-Chair, Cheltenham Labour Party