Andrew Dismore

Holocaust Memorial Day founder Andrew Dismore joined thousands of people across the country remembering those murdered during genocide by commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) on 27 January.

Andrew attended the official commemoration at Barnet Council, the Holocaust Memorial Day launch at Kings Cross Station with the Deputy Prime Minister and the main commemoration with Ed Miliband at the QEII Centre in Central London.

Andrew Dismore said:

‘HMD is a time for everyone to learn lessons from the horrors of the past and pledge to help create a safer, better future. I hope everybody in Barnet and Camden will join me in remembering and take their own step to commemorate the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

If anything brings home the immediacy of the  relevance  of Holocaust Memorial Day, it is  that Gabor Vona,  leader of the Hungarian far right Jobbik Party and founder of the now outlawed ‘Magyar Gárda Mozgalom paramilitary guard’, planned an event in London  the day before HMD, on Sunday, 26^th January.

Jobbik were prevented by the peaceful demonstration in London and few dozen rain sodden, droopy flag waving, blackshirts in Hyde Park were all that was left because of Londoners saying no to Jobbik and their views.

This is why we need HMD more than ever before. The key message of HMD is not just to remember the past, but to warn us to look to what the future may bring,   if we fail to be vigilant and to stand up to be counted.

As every year passes, the fewer survivors there are to remind us all of the horrors of the Shoah. The greatest tribute we can offer the survivors is to keep telling their stories to ensure that the greatest horror in human history will never be repeated.”