Prime Minister :
“Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have
seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing. The mounds of hair,
the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that
was so meticulously kept, except for human life.
“As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that
cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I
tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned,
industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one
reason, simply because they were Jewish.
“My visit today has also shown me more clearly than ever before,
how this was not the evil deeds of a few bad individuals. It took
a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people who each
played their part in constructing this whole industry of death.
To build the tracks, drive the trains, extract the hair and
teeth, conceive the method of mass murder – each stomach-churning
step rooted in the hatred of difference. The lessons of this
darkest of crimes are the ultimate warning to humanity of where
prejudice can lead.
“My wife was equally moved by what she saw today. It was her
second visit, but no less harrowing than the first time she
stepped through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what
happened here.
“Time and again we condemn this hatred, and we boldly say "never
again". But where is never again, when we see the poison of
antisemitism rising around the world in aftermath of October 7th?
Where is never again, when the pulse of fear is beating in our
own Jewish community, as people are despicably targeted once
again for the very same reason, because they are Jewish.
“The truth that I have seen here today will say with me for the
rest of my life. So too, will my determination to defend that
truth, to fight the poison of antisemitism and hatred in all its
forms, and to do everything I can to make “never again” mean what
it says, and what it must truly mean: never again.”
