Each year on 27^th January we remember those who lost their lives during the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi persecution, this date being commemorated as the day Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated.

As well as this horrific act, we remember those who were also murdered during subsequent genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur. I have made a couple of visits to Rwanda and heard first-hand the gruelling and heart-wrenching accounts of survivors of the genocide that tore their country apart. It’s only when you hear these stories, and accounts from any holocaust survivor that you truly realise how awful these events were.

We must learn lessons from the past, and Holocaust Memorial Day is a poignant opportunity to promote democratic and tolerant societies, free from prejudice, where every individual has a right to participate fully throughout all forms society and across all cultures.