Amid rising anti-semitism, we must remember people like Holocaust victim Regine Stern – Angus Robertson

We must never forget the millions of people who have died because of hatred and extremism, writes Angus Robertson.

People visit the Hall of Names in Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum (Picture: Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

Seventy-five years ago, the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. International commemorations at the camp in Poland yesterday included the last of the living survivors, a group which is dwindling with every year. More than a million people were murdered at Auschwitz as part of Nazi German extermination policies to kill Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other minorities.

Commemorating the Holocaust becomes ever more important as we lose the last living connection with those survivors who have bravely born witness to the horrors of the Shoa. With anti-semitism on the rise and Holocaust denial still promoted by extremists, we have a responsibility to make sure we do not forget what happened and ensure it never happens again.

More than six million Jewish men, women and children were systematically murdered across Nazi-occupied Europe by the Germans and their collaborators. Two-thirds of Europe’s Jews were exterminated.

This week the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologised on behalf of his country’s government for its failure to protect Jews during World War Two. He said that while some Dutch officials resisted during the Nazi occupation, too many simply did as they were told.

Righteous Among the Nations

Scotland’s only Holocaust victim is one of those people who died trying to save Jews. Jane Haining was a Church of Scotland missionary whose mission to Budapest was dedicated at St Stephen’s Church in Stockbridge.

She taught Hungarian Jewish girls and like them was sent to her death in Auschwitz. Her efforts have seen her recognised by the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

To ensure that the many millions victims of the Holocaust are remembered, Yad Vashem has launched an initiative, where we are encouraged to commemorate a particular person via their online iRemember Wall.

I am remembering Regine Stern, born Wallach, who was born in 1893 in Linz on the Rhine and lived in Bad Homberg in Germany. She was murdered in 1941. How ironic that she should be somebody from the same part of the country as my relatives who lived nearby.

Regardless of where we come from, we have direct and indirect connections with the dark history of our continent. On Holocaust Memorial Day, we also remember the other subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Remembering Srebrenica

In Edinburgh, Lord Provost Frank Ross led a dignified commemoration in front of the City Chambers where he laid a wreath. He was joined by a delegation of faith and community groups and genocide survivors including Hasan Hasanovic.

Hasan survived the Srebrenica genocide in 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces murdered more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

I visited Srebrenica with Hasan when I led the first Scottish delegation to Bosnia for the Remembering Srebrenica charity. His story of escape, survival and commitment to tell the story of what happened is upsetting and inspiring in equal measure.

I have also visited Auschwitz-Birkenau with a delegation of Scottish school children and the Holocaust Memorial Trust. Going to these places where horrific acts were committed leaves an indelible memory.

We must all commit ourselves to remember the millions of innocent people who died because of hatred and extremism. Unless we learn the lessons of history we are condemned to repeat its horrors.