Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 will be debated in The Scottish Parliament on Thursday, 26 January 2017.
The debate follows a Members’ Business motion by Eastwood MSP Jackson Carlaw which in achieving cross party support shall now be debated in Parliament ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January.
This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day theme is ‘How can life go?’, which aims to look at the challenging questions the Holocaust and other acts of genocide raise for individuals, communities and nations.
Jackson Carlaw MSP is expected to say:
“I am told there are some 216 train journeys between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley on any normal working day.
“Think then and reflect that in May 1944, it took just 147 train journeys to transport around a half a million Hungarian Jews to their murder at Aushwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
“6000 or so, per train. In less time than we will be holding this debate, Jews arrived at Aushwitz-Birkenau, were processed, gassed and left for cremation.
“Today we remember the Holocaust and all the evil that it represents.
“The fires, prejudices and ignorance that made it possible remain and probably, truthfully, always will.
“It falls to us and then to others after us, to ensure anti-Semitism is confronted and defeated, to be optimistic and hopeful and to celebrate the life of Scotland to which our Jewish community has contributed so vitally ever since and in which it will always be welcome.”
Members’ Business motion as below:
Motion Number: S5M-03204
Lodged By: Jackson Carlaw
Date Lodged: 19/12/2016
To be considered for Members’ Business
Title: ♦ Holocaust Memorial Day 2017
Motion Text:
That the Parliament recognises that 27 January 2017 marks Holocaust Memorial Day; believes that the day should serve as an opportunity for learning institutions, faith groups and communities across Scotland, including in Eastwood, to remember the six million men, women and children murdered by the Nazi regime in occupied Europe; notes that the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 is "How can life go on?"; understands that this theme aims to look at the aftermath of the Holocaust, subsequent acts of genocide and the challenging questions such actions continue to raise for individuals, communities and nations about their responsibilities in the wake of such criminal acts; values the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz project, which gives two post-16 students from every school and college in Scotland the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau; celebrates the Holocaust survivors who subsequently made Scotland their home and thanks them for their contribution to Scotland as a nation, and recommits to ensuring that anti-Semitism in all its forms is challenged without fear or favour.