This week, Karin Smyth, MP for Bristol South, signed the Holocaust Education Trust’s Book of Commitment and pledged her support for Holocaust Memorial Day and to hour the memories of those who lost their lives at the hands of the Nazi’s during one of the darkest periods of European History.
Holocaust Memorial Day falls on the 27th January each year and marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Berkenau in 1945.
Karin Smyth said: “6 million Jewish people from across Europe were systematically executed at the hands of the nazis. The industrial scale of the atrocities carried out in the Holocaust seem unimaginable today and that is why I am proud to recommit my support for the work of the Holocaust educational trust.”
Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers the Roma people as well as disabled people, homosexuals an other religious minorities as well as the political opponents who were also put to death by the Nazis. In recent years, Holocaust Memorial Day has also grown to include victims of other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Karin added: “The events of Holocaust are slipping further and further into history and that it why it is important that each new generation commits to never forgetting the names and stories of those who were put to death by the nazis. But we also remember that genocides have taken place in our more recent past, mourn those victims and redouble our efforts for peace.”
Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said:
“On Holocaust Memorial Day we remember the 6 million men, women and children who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, simply for being Jewish, and we pay tribute to the incredible survivors, many of whom still share their testimony day in and day out to ensure that future generations never forget the horrors of the past. We also remember that antisemitism did not start or end with the Holocaust, we must all be vigilant, and speak out whenever it is found.”