Devon MP urges remembrance and action on Holocaust Memorial Day

A South West Devon MP has spoken about the importance of remembering the Holocaust and confronting antisemitism as Holocaust Memorial Day is marked today (27 January).

Rebecca Smith MP visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, last summer, where she was invited to light the Eternal Flame.

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She said the experience was deeply affecting, despite her academic background in history.

“I was not at all prepared for my visit to the memorial or the role I was invited to play,” she said. 

“Coming face to face with what happened to Jews across Europe just eighty years ago provided a stark demonstration of why Holocaust Memorial Day is such an important point on our calendar.”

Ms Smith said the visit strengthened her determination to challenge antisemitism, describing the scale of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators. 

“The Nazis, and those who collaborated with them, oversaw the murder of 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as almost as many others including homosexuals, Slavs and Roma” she said.

She highlighted how persecution escalated through propaganda and the gradual dehumanisation of Jewish people. 

Artefacts at Yad Vashem, she said, show how “media, art and rhetoric” were used to spread antisemitic ideas, leading many ordinary people to believe false claims that Jewish communities were dangerous or inferior.

ABOVE: Following a visit to Yad Vashem, Rebecca Smith MP highlighted why Holocaust Memorial Day remains vital

Ms Smith warned that these lessons remain relevant today, saying, “In modern times we are also exposed to messaging that can influence how we view the world,” and stressed the need to avoid “echo chambers” where harmful views can go unchallenged.

Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, she signed the Holocaust Education Trust’s Book of Remembrance in Parliament, a cross-party commitment to tackling antisemitism. 

“For me, this means supporting the new Plymouth Jewish Community group which has been set up in the city,” she said, adding that it also means standing with people persecuted for their race or religious beliefs “here at home and across the world.”

Holocaust Memorial Day is observed annually on 27 January, marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and remembering the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.