Remembering

It seemed like time stood still yesterday as people remembered the Nazi killing machine on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Hundreds of former inmates gathered there, unable to forget.

At the Museum of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, I remember standing in the Hall of Remembrance, which commemorates the Nazi killing centres where countless thousands died. I explained to the Jewish doorkeeper  that I was not a Jew, but a Gentile. I asked his forgiveness. "Ah,"  he said, "It wasn't just the Jews. It was Communists, prisoners of war. . . "

A gentle man from Poland recalled an incident while an inmate in Auschwitz. As he walked down a corridor, he heard another inmate out of sight singing an aria from Tosca. SS men ran over and the singing suddenly stopped. Later, he asked what had happened. "He was killed," he was told.  

Some Jews became atheists as a result of the Holocaust. "Where was God?" they said. Unfortunately, they had the wrong question. The correct question was not "Where was God?" but "Where was man?"

Antisemitic incidents in the UK last year are set to be the highest in the past 30 years. In Europe, antisemitism is said to be at its worst since the Nazi era. In France, eight synagogues were attacked in one week.

People need to remember that one day everything will be put right. Not a single thing will be forgotten. Nothing is more certain.