Today is #HolocaustMemorialDay. It is so important to remember the terrible suffering of the Jewish people and other groups during the Second World War.
Genocide has marked more recent history as well. On Holocaust Memorial Day, I also remember other more recent genocides such as those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and Srebrenica.
On Holocaust Memorial Day in 2020, the Government announced that it would make a £1 million donation to help preserve the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
A few years ago, I visited Auschwitz with a delegation of politicians from all across Europe. I find it impossible to properly describe the deep feeling of evil and misery that still hangs over the site. However it is the same feeling that I first experienced when I was taken to a genocide site in Rwanda in the early 2000s and again when visiting a site in Cambodia. It is so very important that we never forget genocide and always stay alert to the lessons we should take from history.
There will be a debate in Parliament today to remember the victims and survivors of genocide across the world and reflect on the persecution that continues to this day.
