Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Day UK National
Ceremony, Prime Minister said:
“Earlier this month, my wife and I were in Block 27 of Auschwitz
searching for members of her family in the Book of Names. It was
harrowing.
“We turned page after page after page just to find the first
letter of a name. It gave me an overwhelming sense of the sheer
scale of this industrialised murder.
“And every one of those names, like the names we were looking for
– was an individual person. Someone's mother, father, brother,
sister brutally murdered, simply because they were Jewish.
“Last week I met Renee Salt and Arek Hersh who somehow survived
but whose loved ones were among those victims. I was humbled by
their courage to speak of being in that place. I felt waves of
revulsion at the depravity they described, at the cynicism.
“People told to bring their belongings like the piles of pots and
pans I saw myself. The commandant living next door bringing up
his family, the normalisation of murder, like it was just a day's
work.
“In Auschwitz, I saw photographs of Nazi guards standing with
Jewish prisoners staring at the camera – completely indifferent –
and in one case, even smiling. It showed more powerfully than
ever how the Holocaust was a collective endeavour by thousands of
ordinary people utterly consumed by the hatred of difference.
“That is the hatred we stand against today, and it is a
collective endeavour for all of us to defeat it.
“We start by remembering the six million Jewish victims and by
defending the truth against anyone who would deny it. So we
will have a National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre
to speak this truth for eternity.
“But as we remember, we must also act because we say never again
– but where was never again in the genocides of Cambodia, Rwanda,
Bosnia and Darfur. And where is never again as antisemitism still
kills Jewish people.
“Today, we have to make those words mean more. So we will make
Holocaust education a truly national endeavour.
“We will ensure all schools teach it and seek to give every young
person the opportunity to hear a recorded survivor testimony.
Because by learning from survivors like Renee and Arek we can
develop that empathy for others and that appreciation of our
common humanity, which is the ultimate way to defeat the hatred
of difference.
“As I left Block 27, I saw the words of Primo Levi. It
happened, it can happen again: that is the warning of the
Holocaust to all of us.
“And it's why it is a duty for all of us to make “never again”
finally mean what it says: Never again.”
