January 27th marks the national commemoration day across the world, including the United Kingdom, dedicated to remembering the lives of Jewish people that were lost in the Holocaust under Nazi persecution. The date, January 27th, was chosen to mark the day that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Allies in 1945, however other countries have chosen to observe this day on a different date. Regardless of the date observed, the importance of this commemoration day cannot be understated.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and their allies committed a systematic genocide of Jewish people across the entirety of German-Occupied Europe. Starting out with the segregation in ghettos, Jewish people were subjected to conditions that were rife with disease, famine and overcrowding which culminated in an estimated 76,000 people dying in the Warsaw ghetto before 1943 alone. Unsatisfied with this horrific progress, the Nazis escalated this process of systematic murder by forcibly moving Jewish individuals to work camps, where they would often be worked to death. However, as the Second World War continued, Hitler and the Nazis escalated these murderous policies to the “final solution” where the priority switched to killing as many Jewish people as possible through death squads, gas chambers, medical experiments and death marches. These horrific actions killed an estimated 6 million Jewish individuals, being around two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust stated that:
‘The Holocaust threatened the fabric of civilisation, and genocide must still be resisted every day. Our world often feels fragile and vulnerable and we cannot be complacent. Even in the UK, prejudice and the language of hatred must be challenged by us all. HMD is for everyone. Each year across the UK, thousands of people come together to learn more about the past and take action to create a safer future. We know they learn more, empathise more and do more. Together we bear witness for those who endured genocide, and honour the survivors and all those whose lives were changed beyond recognition.’
Scottish Conservative MSP and former leader Jackson Carlaw spoke eloquently in the Scottish Parliament:
‘Holocaust Memorial Day serves not just as a commemoration of those lost not only in the Holocaust itself but in the multiple genocides throughout the near 80 years since. Importantly, it must remind us of an enduring and permanent duty, not just to pay lip service in days like this, but to confront, challenge, educate and defeat the forced harbouring and perpetuating genocidal schemes and all the underpin and facilitate them… Like many, I have wept at the horror and barbarism of the Holocaust and the genocides in my lifetime. Have we failed? Sometimes it overwhelmingly feels like we have. What must our responses be? There can be no other choice. We must rededicate ourselves to meeting the challenge every year, every decade, every generation. In so doing, we honour those that were lost.’
The Scottish Conservative Party stands with the whole United Kingdom in condemning and fighting the ideology of hatred and supremacy that fuels genocides like the holocaust, and we stand to remember all the lives that were lost in these horrific acts.