Holocaust is a warning from history about retreat of democracy and rise of identity politics

Liberalism and the idea that we are all individuals provide a defence against the evil philosophy of the Nazis

After British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany on April 15, 1945, BBC journalist Richard Dimbleby sent a report so horrifying that his editors initially did not believe him. It was only broadcast after he threatened to resign.

Eighty years on, survivor Mala Tribich, who was 14 when she was rescued, has warned it is “up to us to guard against” a repetition of the Holocaust. “Different things are happening [today] which are not very palatable, not very acceptable, but we must just constantly work against those terrible forces around us that make terrible things happen,” she said.

A survivor at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly after it was liberated by British troops on April 15, 1945 (Picture: Galerie Bilderwelt) | Getty Images

The increasing power of dictatorships, the global retreat of democracy, and the rise of illiberal, identity politics all make “terrible things” more likely to happen.

A central tenet of liberalism is the simple but powerful idea that we are individuals, something we all know to be true about ourselves. If the Nazis had been able to see their victims in this way, they could not have carried out mass murder on an industrial scale.

The Holocaust seemed unbelievable, but it happened. And it could do so again.