National Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is a very sombre day indeed as we remember all those who lost their lives to the Nazi death machine, plus (I hope) all those who have lost their lives in many other senseless attacks on civilians throughout the modern age.

We all know that the death toll of the Nazi Holocaust is mostly Jewish victims of racial hatred but we must also remember all those others who died... the Communists, the liberals, the homosexuals, the Jehovah Witnesses, the gypsies and, most disturbing of all, the disabled; the weakest and most vulnerable victims of all.

Action T4 is often forgotten. This was an Euthanasia programme aimed at removing those who were mentally or physically "unfit" from the gene pool and releasing the money and time required for their care to more "useful" ends. These people, some just children, were gassed in vans having been lead there believing they were going on holiday or were about to get a special treat. Their families were lied to to try to hide these crimes. But eventually the German people found out and did start protesting. By 1941 the Nazis had to stop this hideous criminal activity... but they took their experience, equipment and men to the east to begin their final solution...

All those who died deserve to be remembered but somehow the stories of the victims of Action T4 will always be foremost in my mind. They seem to scream out with the utter inhumanity of the mindset of that particular time and place.

Let us dream of a future free of such vile crimes... it may seem far fetched at the moment but one must hope for a better day.