ON THIS day 75 years ago Soviet troops liberated prisoners from the Auschwitz complex of camps and uncovered to the world the true horror of the Nazi regime, in particular the genocide it had been carrying out primarily against members of the Jewish faith but also against other ethnic groups which it considered not worthy of life.
It is estimated that six million Jews were murdered in Auschwitz and in most cases these victims were brutalised when they were robbed of their homes and possessions and forced to live in ghettoes until the final journey to to one of the many extermination centres.
Many people who go for a holiday to Krakow make a trip to the camps at Oswiecim a part of that experience. Unless they are as inhumane as those who ran this monstrous place they cannot fail to be deeply affected by what they see and experience.
It is not a tourist attraction. It is not a place for selfies. It is a place for reflection and it is a place to prove that humanity is capable of the most terrible violence.
Sadly that genocide carried out by the Nazis was not to be the last. Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur experienced similar horrors and for that reason are remembered by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. All of those events happened decades after Soviet troops opened the gates of Auschwitz on January 27 1945.
We would be therefore foolish to think that such things will never happen again. We are entitled to hope that will be the case but surely we are obligated to do our best to prevent such terrible inhumanity reoccurring.
The Nazi philosophy was all about superiority. Surely there is a lesson for all of us in that. Hatred of strangers, foreigners and those not always conforming to the accepted norm of the time can follow.
Such attitudes can still be found, even at the highest levels of government. Inflammatory language can and does lead to violence. We must all be careful with our words and most importantly learn from the past.
