Holocaust Memorial Day

I’d like to quote from the Book of Joel:  "Has the like of this happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?  Tell your children about it, and let your children tell theirs, and their children the next generation."  That’s why we’re here.  Not simply to remember, but to speak. 

We must speak of the crime of Holocaust, millions of innocent people, men, women, children, babies -- sent to their deaths just for being different, just for being Jewish.  We must talk about the millions of Poles and Catholics and Roma, Political prisoners, trade unionists, Gay men, Transexuals and so many others who also must never be forgotten.  We must talk not only how they died, but also how they lived -- as fathers and mothers, lovers, sons and daughters who loved and hoped and dreamed, just like us.   

We must speak about how this evil was allowed to happen -- because so many people gave in to their dark ideas, and because so many stood silent.

The Holocaust may have reached its barbaric climax at the death camps but it started in the hearts of ordinary men and women.  And we have seen it again -- madness that can sweep through peoples, sweep through nations, embed itself.  The killings in Cambodia, the killings in Rwanda, the killings in Bosnia, the killings in Darfur, the killings of innocent civilians in Syria, by Daaish -- they shock us, but they are the result of ignorance and intolerance that we see every day; the bigotry that says another person is less than my equal, less than human.  These are the seeds of hate that we cannot let take root in our hearts.

All the peoples of the world have the right to live their lives in peace and security, everyone has the right to practice their religion or none. Free from the fear of persecution, all people have the right to follow their heart and to love someone without fear of persecution, all peoples have the right to live on the land of their ancestors without fear of persecution, invasion or having it stolen from them.

  

We must challenge societies to change. Change comes from the bottom up, from the grassroots. Preventing genocide is an achievable goal.  It is one that does not start from the top; it starts from the bottom up.

All of you should consider what can I do? Its not just up to Governments or elected officials to tackle the ills of this world today, it’s the responsibility of every person to say what can I do to make the life of my fellow citizen better, how can I understand people who are different from me?

  

Military intervention is not the answer to the problems of this world. We possess many tools -- diplomatic and political, and economic and financial, intelligence and law enforcement that can be used to intervene.

When the referendum in South Sudan was in doubt, it threatened to reignite a conflict that had killed millions.  But with determined diplomacy, South Sudan became the world’s newest nation. Diplomacy must continue, because in Darfur, in Abyei, in Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile, the killing of innocents must come to an end.  The bombing of civilians in Syria by their own government with the support of Russia must stop.

  

We must help realize a future where no African child is stolen from their family and no girl is raped and no boy is turned into a child soldier. 

In short, we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these kinds of atrocities -- because national sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people. 

There will be conflicts that are not easily resolved.  There will be senseless deaths that aren’t prevented.  There will be stories of pain and hardship that test our hopes and try our conscience.  And in such moments it can be hard to imagine a more just world. 

Last January I visited Somaliland and I met with the members of the Human Rights Commission, and survivors of the terrible atrocities committed against the civilian population by the dictator Siad Barrie during the 1980’s civil war.

The survivors said to me "We had the right to give up."  "We had the right to give up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on the possibility of living one's life with dignity, in a world that has no place for dignity." 

But they told me, "We rejected that possibility, and we said, no, we must continue believing in a future."  To stare into the abyss, to face the darkness and insist there is a future -- to not give up, to say yes to life, to believe in the possibility of justice.  

To those survivors and the survivors of all conflicts thank you for not giving up.  You show us the way.  If you cannot give up, if you can believe, then we can believe.  If you can continue to strive and speak, then we can speak and strive for a future where there’s a place for dignity for every human being and a world where everyone has the right to live their life in peace.