Northern negotiations - Intolerance must not triumph

Yesterday’s commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland was a timely reminder of the evil that can emerge if sectarianism and religious bigotry is allowed to go unchecked. A total of one million Jewish people perished in the camp from 1942 until its liberation in 1945.

Around 125,000 other people also perished at Auschwitz. Those victims included up to 75,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners and up to a similar number of freedom fighters from various areas of Europe.

If the Nazis had won the war and wiped out all of the Jewish people in Europe, they would in all likelihood have continued with their persecution of others that they despised. The world should not be allowed to forget the horrors of Auschwitz, doing so would be a virtual invitation for something similar to happen again.