by Mike Katz
On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day (27 Jaunuary – to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on the same day 65 years ago), everyone should visit the HMD Trust website to light a virtual candle and find out more about HMD activity in the area.
Mr & Mrs Brown welcome Mr Avey along with fellow survivor Ben Helfgott MBE, Chairman of the HET, Lord Janner, and two student ambassadors to Downing Street.
Over the past decade, the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day and Holocaust Education has increased beyond recognition in this country. This is – rightly –a non-partisan cause, but I’m proud that much of the funding and political will for the HMD Trust and the Holocaust Education Trust came about under a Labour Government.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is unwavering in his support for this cause. In the run-up to HMD, he and Sarah Brown welcomed British PoW Denis Avey to Downing Street. Mr Brown described Mr Avey as a remarkable man, after hearing how he helped a Jewish prisoner survive the camp twice by swapping places with him.
The PM also signed the Holocaust Memorial Day Book of Commitment, with these moving words:
“The story of the Holocaust is one of cruelty: it is also one of courage, of how people can still find the ability to be human even in the most inhuman of times.
“I am reminded of the Rabbi who was not himself ever in a camp, who was asked why he did so much for Holocaust education when he was not himself a Survivor. And he replied that he was a Survivor, not just of all Jews but all of humanity. Humanity survived our descent into evil and if we commit today to remember and to resistance to evil then that is the legacy of hope.”