tinkertonks:

Today marks 71 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. It’s a day regarded internationally as Holocaust Memorial Day, a day to honour and remember the men, women and children who suffered at the hands of Nazi regime. I won’t just cite the Jewish deaths here, but also those of the disabled, political dissidents, of gay and lesbians, of the Roma, of the Sinte, ethnic Poles, hell just about anyone that was deemed undesirable to the greater good.

Hate fosters hate, and while the world insists that it will never happen again, the political wheels currently in motion are already tiptoeing into dangerous water. Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from America, Hungary’s persecution of the Roma, the worldwide treatment of displaced migrants, the growing inability to distinguish Judaism from Zionism, Russia’s homophobia, the Tory government’s move towards gentrification,  or even just the general international rhetoric of ‘You’re not like us, so we don’t want you.’

Anne Frank said it best, when she told us “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.”

So today I implore the world to remember it’s not too distant past. To look at the path it lead us down, because once you’ve toppled down that rabbit hole, it’s a long hard climb to come back from. We’re supposed to be a civilised society. We’re supposed to have learnt from past mistakes. Yet here we are, in the 21st century dangerously close to watching history repeat.

George Santayana once said ‎“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

So remember. Remember and say it with me. ‘Never Again.’