Always ‘too soon’ to make light of something so dark

**By the end of the year 1945, six million Jewish people had been killed in the racial cleansing that was initiated by the Third Reich. Of course, we all know this figure and we all know about the Holocaust.**

However, it is becoming rapidly clear that it is losing its significance to the average person. The number of times we hear of some drastic new catastrophe that it is ‘reminiscent of the Holocaust’ or some other phrase is uncountable. Yet when we consider the fact that six million, of a total global population of nine million, Jews were killed in a six year period it seems unthinkable that we should compare anything that has happened since to this event. Since 1945, there has not been a single massacre, war or otherwise maliciously inflicted single event that has even come close to claiming so many lives. In the wake of the International Holocaust Memorial Day, marking the liberation of Auschwitz, a deep respect must be held towards this horrific event and a sense of human community should be found in showing our regards.

And yet, in what seems like a cheap publicity ploy, an MP has made some hugely disheartening comments. David Ward, who is a politician in the Liberal Democrat party, made comments on the Israeli violence in Palestine, relating it to the Holocaust. The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most saddening, gruesome and complex issues in our modern conflicted world. It is impossible for either side to claim complete justification for all of their actions and for the most objective of observers to try to pick out any ground between the two. The most that can be said about the conflict is that it has claimed too many lives and the best we can do is attempt to resolve the crisis from the present. Even putting aside David Ward’s anti-Israeli position, even at the most basic level it seems deeply immoral to use the memorial of such a tragic event as a chance to be scoring political points. In the same way that Remembrance Day should be kept as a day to remember all those who have ever lost their lives in conflict, regardless of political position, the Holocaust Memorial Day should transcend any arguments over the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Granted, David Ward has now apologised for his statements and it is to be hoped he will be sanctioned by his party. However, unlike the Holocaust, this incident is something we should take a lesson from. When we have these moments of the deepest human solidarity, all causes should be lain at the door. They should be left as a time for people to come together in empathy and a time for mutual mourning and consolation. Let’s hope that in the future, that at least will be remembered.