Holocaust must never be forgotten says Murphy

Marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi extermination camps in World War II, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy attended a Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony in Londonderry.

Reflecting on the theme of this year’s Commemoration, ‘Survivors, Liberation and Rebuilding Lives’, Mr Murphy said this reminded everyone of the horrors which survivors had endured followed by the challenge of rebuilding their lives, “in a world devoid of the basic supports of home, family, friends and even country, something today which we take for granted”.

“Their achievement, not only in rebuilding their own lives, but enriching in so many ways the lives of the countries in which they settled, including Northern Ireland, is testament for all that is good in the human spirit,” he added.

Speaking at the Ceremony at the Waterside Theatre, Mr Murphy continued: “Holocaust Memorial Day presents us with an opportunity to join with representatives of the persecuted and those who themselves experienced persecution, to remember the millions who died.

“Sixty years ago, the world was about to discover that what it had feared, suspected and even denied, was indeed a reality: the enslavement and extermination of human beings on an unimaginable scale by the Nazi regime.

“The Holocaust challenges our power of comprehension in seeking to understand why this should have happened in 20th Century Europe. It makes us recognise how inadequate our imagination is to the task of visualising the scale and intensity of the suffering.”

The first Holocaust Memorial Day was held on 27 January 2001, the anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi extermination camp, with the National Commemoration in London.

(MB/SP)