{"id":78385,"date":"2017-01-26T17:09:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T17:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c8114c20b10a35beda24a85994cf1084"},"modified":"2017-01-26T17:09:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T17:09:14","slug":"speech-holocaust-memorial-day-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=78385","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Holocaust Memorial Day 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>72 years ago the world learned of the liberation of Auschwitz and the full horror of the death camps.<\/p>\n<p>And as we looked at the devastation wrought on the Jews of Europe, we swore that we would never let genocide happen again.<\/p>\n<p>We failed.<\/p>\n<p>Genocide happened in Cambodia.<\/p>\n<p>It happened in Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>The 20th century ended with genocide in Bosnia.<\/p>\n<p>The 21st century began with genocide in Darfur.<\/p>\n<p>Faced not only with such unimaginable evil, but also with our repeated failure to learn from it, it\u2019s easy to ask \u201cHow can life go on?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I find the answer in the words that one young victim of the Holocaust wrote in her diary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still believe people are really good at heart\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Anne Frank was right.<\/p>\n<p>People can be good.<\/p>\n<p>We can be better.<\/p>\n<p>We just need to be reminded of our failings, and not permitted to forget what happens when hatred is left to grow unchecked.<\/p>\n<p>So, life can go on because life must go on.<\/p>\n<p>Because we must remember.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why Holocaust Memorial Day is so important.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s why I\u2019m so proud to be leading the work on the new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/uk-holocaust-memorial-foundation\">National Holocaust Memorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s going to be built right outside Parliament, and concept designs will be unveiled at 10 Downing Street later on today.<\/p>\n<p>The memorial will remind us of those who died and those who survived.<\/p>\n<p>But it will also remind us that the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers.<\/p>\n<p>It began with words.<\/p>\n<p>With discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>With ordinary people not standing up to hatred.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s a message that\u2019s as relevant today as at any time in our history.<\/p>\n<p>A message that must be shared, that must be passed on to our children and our children\u2019s children.<\/p>\n<p>Because in the words of Zigi Shipper, one of 112 Holocaust survivors whose testimony has been recorded for the memorial project:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI beg the young people, whatever you do, do not hate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHate will ruin your life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Communities Secretary Sajid Javid speaks at the national event marking Holocaust Memorial Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}