Foreign Secretary tells HMD event: ‘Each of us shares solemn duty to remember the six million’
James Cleverly was speaking at the foreign office HMD event, also attended by survivor, Manfred Goldberg BEM, Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely and Lord Pickles
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said “each one of us shares a solemn duty to remember that six million men, women and children were killed during the Holocaust”.
Speaking at the Foreign Office’s Holocaust Memorial Day event Cleverly added:”When we say the words ‘never again’, we must mean it, heart and soul.
“We owe it to all who were not saved to reflect, to learn, to grieve, and above all, to remember.”
The event, co-hosted by the FCDO and the Israeli Embassy in the UK, was part of a long-standing collaboration between the UK and Israel to mark HMD and returns in-person for the first time in three years.
The Foreign Secretary gave a speech to attendees reflecting on his own visit, last year, to Radegast station in Lodz in Poland where 200,000 Jewish men, women and children were transported to Nazi death camps.
Concentration Camp survivor, Manfred Goldberg BEM, also shared his testimony with guests at the ceremony, including representatives from the Jewish community, diplomatic community, civil society, Parliamentarians, and other communal leaders.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, added:”Today, we remember the six million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust, as well as the millions of other lives who perished at the hands of Nazism. We reflect on the systematic murder of ordinary people and the immense pain and suffering needlessly inflicted on so many. “
Lord Pickles, the UK’s Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues and Co-Chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said: “Sadly, the number of direct witnesses to the Holocaust are dwindling and that is why we must ensure that what they endured, what they witnessed is never forgotten.
“We should make it our mission to ensure that no one questions the basic facts of the Holocaust.”
Both the Embassy of Israel and the FCDO will mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday 27th January 2023, by lighting up their respective buildings in purple, in honour of all victims of genocide.
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