Holocaust Memorial Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp in occupied Poland. where it is estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jewish died there, including around 70,000 Poles, and 21,000 Roma and Sinti people.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland.
Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to encompass also the persecution of these other groups.
We remember today all the people, murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, all victims of Nazi persecution and we also remember the victims of subsequent genocides. On Holocaust Memorial Day, I pause to remember the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust, alongside the millions of others persecuted and killed by the Nazi regime. It is important that we bear witness to their testimonies and reaffirm our commitment to remembrance as an act of respect, responsibility and solidarity.
If we completely forget the tragic events of the holocaust, we have no history to act as a warning sign when we see similar actions happening in the middle east, and all over the world under various dictatorships and tyrannic regimes.
Holocaust Memorial day isn’t, and will never be, an event reserved for a specific demographic: it is vital for everyone to acknowledge. It is not simply a day for retelling the past, but a day of empowerment for those to always stand up for what they believe in, to guarantee acts of genocide will never happen again.
The genocide of the Jewish people, Roma and other minorities during World War II is a brutal reminder of what can happen in a society overtaken by division, prejudice and hatred, and the fragility of our own humanity, security and safety.Today we remember the victims but also the lesson. Never again must mean never again.
The slogan Never Again symbolised the determination of anti-fascists and the labour movement that after the Holocaust, genocide must never happen again - that no one should be annihilated because of an accident of birth and who they are.
“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
Elie went on to write a number of books about his own personal story and that of the Holocaust (also known as 'the Shoah’ in Hebrew) in general, and his works — along with the likes of Primo Levi (author of If This Is A Man) and Anne Frank, whose diary is famous across the world — are some of the most defining stories of that era. They are books I would implore everyone to read, especially as a 2021 study found that over half of Britons did not know that six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that two million or fewer were killed.
And though it is easy to leave history in the past, events like The Holocaust must be remembered — they must be remembered out of respect for those who lost their lives, for those who overcame the most severe form of persecution and went on to become productive members of the communities in which they settled and for those who are yet to even step foot on this planet. We must, as Elie Wiesel says, “bear witness” to these events, and pass their stories and their lessons onto the next generation, so that we can avoid such horrors happening again.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Holocaust was the greatest crime of the 20th century because of the sheer scale of the premeditated and industrialized murder that occurred.
As we contemplate the monumental nature of this moment, it’s instructive to consider the history of International Holocaust Remembrance Day itself. This annual commemoration was created by the UN in to take place annually on January 27: the day Aushwitz-Birkenau , was liberated. In its resolution establishing the day, the UN General Assembly made it clear that this observance would not merely be about commemorating the past; it pointedly urged member states “to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.”
The GA also made it explicit that this remembrance would not be limited to the European Jewry alone, but should also extend to “countless members of other minorities” who were murdered en masse by the Nazi regime.
From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used persecution, propoganda, and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their foundation. By the end of the Holocaust more than a million inmates, primarily Jews, were brutally and systematically killed in the place where the Nazis introduced the monstrous concept of ‘industrialized murder.’
The 2026 HMD events take place against a backdrop of rising antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, with many community leaders calling for reflection on the lessons of the past to foster a safer, more peaceful future for all.
Holocaust Memorial Day is a time to remember not only the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, but also the millions more who were targeted and killed — including Roma and Sinti people, Slavic communities, Black and mixed-race individuals, communists, trade unionists, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people, and gay men, alongside others deemed undesirable who were exterminated by the nazis between 1939 and 1945 and all the people who perished in the genocides that followed including Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Remembering the Holocaust is not only about the past; it is about ensuring that the dignity and humanity of every person are upheld today and always. In this day and age, Holocaust Memorial Day carries a renewed urgency. As antisemitism, racism and hatred continue to resurface in our societies, remembrance challenges us to confront prejudice wherever it appears and to stand up for truth, justice and equality. I firmly believe that “never again” must be more than words.
The theme for HMD 2026, 'Bridging Generations', is a call-to-action. A reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn't end with the survivors - it lives on through their children, their grandchildren and through all of us. This theme encourages us all to engage actively with the past - to listen, to learn and to carry those lessons forward. By doing so, we build a bridge between memory and action, between history and hope for the future.
A reminder that is the responsibility of all ages to tell the stories of the people who were murdered, those who fought back, those who resisted, those who stood by, and those who chose to be perpetrators. It emphasises that communication between generations, sharing knowledge and information have a role in understanding the past, regardless of age or curriculum, to foster empathy and inspire action to ensure that the horrors of the past can be learnt from.
Today HMD serves as a springboard for a wider discussion on other genocides and crimes against humanity. Thus it ensures that the Holocaust is not just an historical event or one for a meaningless outpouring of grief but one that signals why racism, antisemitism, prejudice of the other and persecution of those who are different, have disabilities or have different ways of expressing their sexuality, are wrong and can lead to devastating effects across societies and generations.
The Holocaust let's not forget played an important part in the establishment of the State of Israel yet it was because of the Nakba, the expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeland, that a Jewish State was formed. A series of massacres accompanied the Nakba which were aimed at ‘encouraging’ the flight of the Palestinian refugees.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026 is arriving just as Israel are literally being judged on the world stage for an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Currently in occupied Palestine, the Zionist State of Israel engages in a sickening parody in its genocide against the Palestinians, spitting on the suffering endured by the Jewish people during the Second World War and Humanity’s determination that this would never be seen again.
Gaza has laid bare the hypocrisy of a system that preaches human rights, chief of which is the right to life, but which fails to take the steps necessary to ensure them and worse still, allows nations to violate them with impunity. The global refrain, “Never Again”, sadly has been reduced to a sardonic epitaph etched with blood into the rubbled remains of Gaza. ‘Never again’ means nothing without action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza today.
Some activists, scholars, and groups, such as the Islamic Human Rights Commission and some Jewish groups, have called for the inclusion of the situation in Gaza in the context of genocide prevention. They argue that the "Never Again" promise of HMD should apply to all, including Palestinians.
Ultimately, the day serves as a reminder to confront hate, prejudice, and the processes that lead to atrocities, with different communities interpreting how to apply those lessons to modern conflicts like Gaza.
The phrase Never Again is no mere slogan, but a clarion call to all peace-loving peoples across the world to resist fascism wherever it may appear and in whatever mutation it evolves into. Remembering the words of Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, that against the fascist scourge an attack on one of us is an attack on all.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
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