Holocaust Memorial Day

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I was privileged to be one of those representing Remembering Srebrenica at Holocaust Memorial Day, hosted by Birmingham City Council today.

2025 is a special year for commemoration – marking both the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the 30th anniversary of the genocide near the Bosnian town of Srebrenica when over 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were systematically murdered simply because they were Muslims.

There will be a series of events commemorating the Bosnian genocide later this year. Today, though, the historical focus was rightly on the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were butchered along with thousands of Roma, gay men, lesbians, people with disabilities, political opponents of the Nazi regime and many others.

Many of those murders took place in Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. I visited those camps myself in 2008 with the Holocaust Educational Trust. It was an experience that will remain with me forever.

The harrowing sight of the railhead outside Birkenau camp, with the tracks on which cattle trucks brought so many to their deaths

We must never forget the genocides of the past – whether the Holocaust or those in Bosnia, Cambodia or Rwanda.

As we recall those horrific events and pay tribute to the victims, though, it is also vital to remember the words of Amos Goldberg, Professor of Holocaust Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: “We don’t teach about genocides in order to realise it retrospectively. We teach about it in order to prevent it and to stop it.”

This is not only about history. It’s about today and the kind of tomorrow we want to create.

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Richard Burden

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I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.

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You can reach me by email at richard@richardburden.com or use the form on the Contact page to send me a message.