Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Holocaust Memorial Day


Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated on 27th January each year. This marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

HMD aims to commemorate, to educate and to prompt action in the UK. HMD commemorates the lives of those lost in the Holocaust; as a result of Nazi persecution and in more recent genocides. It educates about the Holocaust and it lessons for the present day. It prompts action in the UK highlighting the continuing dangers of racism, anti-semitism and all forms of discrimination.

The tragedies of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur teaches that the international community, and each of us as citizens, has not truly understood the lessons of the Holocaust. There are surely times when it is possible for environmentalists, in their understandable environmental concerns, to overlook the fact that protecting God's creation means protecting the highest order of His creation, the human being.

Ultimately the aim of HMD is to motivate people individually and collectively, to ensure that the horrendous crimes, racism and victimisation committed not only in the Holocaust, but also in more recent genocides, are neither forgotten nor repeated, whether in Europe or elsewhere in the world.

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