IT IS of particular poignancy that yesterday's 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp comes at a time when Jews across Europe are carrying the burden of fear once more, as the twin spectres of far Right extremists and jihadis pose their community a clear and present danger.
To be out shopping in the wrong kosher supermarket in Paris at the wrong time in the days after the Charlie Hebdo slaughter was to be put in peril. In the 21st century that is a dreadful thing for our fellow citizens of Jewish faith to endure, and difficult for the rest of us to comprehend.
The Prime Minister has committed £50m to a new National Holocaust Memorial and associated education centre, rightly saying we should all be standing in remembrance no matter our faith, creed or politics. His Labour opponent has more cause to support the project than many, given that both his parents fled the Nazis and many of his relatives did not escape the horror unleashed.
It must constantly be kept in mind that the Holocaust was unique only in the industrial efficiency the Nazis brought to bear. Pogroms have been a recurring virus for humankind, often but not exclusively aimed at the Jewish people.
The photographs from 70 years ago of emaciation and death remain hard to look at, but so too is the chart the ever-efficient Nazis used to set out the different colours of triangles and stars death camp inmates, and those destined for there, would be forced to wear - a vile perversion of the innocent badges sewn on the sleeves of today's cub scouts - delineating not achievement but marks of supposed shame and death. Homosexuality, freemasonry, perceived criminality whether actual or political and religious dissent all had their badges, as had the Roma, Slavs and disabled people deemed mentally or physically feeble.
Many of these same prejudices remain today, particularly across the Right-wing fringe here and on the Continent. Anders Breivik did not spring from a void, even in liberal Norway, nor do those flying a Ku Klux Klan flag in Belfast, as happened last year.
The lessons of history for Holocaust Day should go further than remembrance for the largest persecuted group, and Jews who recognise that are to be applauded. So too must space be created for political criticism of the policies of the Israeli government without this being shouted down as anti-semitism. Many liberal Israelis attest to this.
The Jews were by far the largest group to face the brunt of Hitler's insane plans for an endless Reich and their suffering is rightly at the heart of Holocaust Day. We honour that 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by also remembering the other victims.
We honour that too by understanding that present conflicts in Eastern Europe stem from the sufferings of that same period, and we honour and protect our Jewish fellow citizens in Scotland and across the UK by standing firm against fascist and Islamist extremism while remaining free to criticise any government when we consider it to be wrong.
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