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Today I will be standing in a place that, for me, is one of the most unbearable I know.

I’m in Poland, and here at Auschwitz-Birkenau this afternoon, I will be taking part in a ceremony attended by dignitaries from all over the world, including His Majesty the King.

We’re here because 80 years ago today, this camp, where close to one million Jewish women, men and children were brutally murdered just because they were Jewish, was liberated by Soviet troops, who discovered what the industrialised slaughter of human beings looked like.

The remaining prisoners were in dire health; those able to stand, fell to their knees to kiss the overcoats of their liberators. The mountains of spectacles, prosthetic limbs, cooking pots and shoes that were discovered can be viewed to this day.

In the 1990s, British historian Laurence Rees spent years interviewing witnesses and perpetrators of the Holocaust. He wrote of his shock at discovering that even then, horrifying antisemitism persisted. Worse still, as he travelled through places where Jewish communities had long since been erased, he was troubled by the number of young people who expressed open hatred of Jews.

Just months ago, a global survey by the Anti-Defamation League revealed that a fifth of respondents from around the world had never even heard of the Holocaust. Another fifth believed it was a myth or that the numbers had been greatly exaggerated. Fewer than half agreed that the Holocaust had taken place as recorded by history.

For decades, we have marked anniversaries like today’s, with ceremonies and declarations. Here in Europe, the scourge of antisemitism continues to rise. Synagogues are firebombed, and anti-Jewish violence is on the increase as the poison of hatred spreads.

The Bible commands us to remember the evil of the past for the sake of our future. The Hebrew word for remembering, ‘Zachor’ is not passive. It implies action. Our societies are called upon to recall the horrors of the past to ensure that in the future we will protect the vulnerable and confront evil whenever it arises.

Are we to be the generation that allows the lessons of Auschwitz to fade into oblivion?

Eighty years ago today, the gates of hell on earth were finally opened, but true liberation is an ongoing task, a sacred duty, to fight for a world in which every person’s humanity is recognised and every soul cherished.

In this spirit, ‘Never Again’ will stand a chance of being not just a phrase we recite, but a promise we live.

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