McArthur speaks in Holocaust Memorial Day debate

Orkney MSP Liam McArthur today spoke in the Holocaust Memorial Day debate in the Scottish Parliament. Noting this year’s theme, ‘For a Better Future’, and drawing on the grave lessons of the Holocaust, Mr McArthur highlighted the need to redouble efforts to confront modern day antisemitism, racism and intolerance.

Speaking in the debate, Mr McArthur said:  

“The Holocaust Educational Trust have this year shared the work of Professor Gregory Stanton, who has developed an academic model for the ten stages of genocide. It offers a reminder that genocide never occurs in a vacuum.

“The Holocaust did not begin with death camps and gas chambers and forced ghettoisation. Before we get to steps 8, 9 and 10, of persecution, extermination and denial, there are steps 1,2, and 3– classification, discrimination, and polarisation.

“If we want to safeguard a better future, we must be willing to challenge incidences of racism, bigotry and attempts to divide, as we see them in society.

“As the Holocaust Educational Trust acknowledge, this year may well be the last where the Holocaust remains within living memory.

“As first-hand testimony fades, and as antisemitic as well as extremist, exclusionary rhetoric gains traction across the world, it is more important than ever that we commit to remember and bear witness to the circumstances that normalised such widespread, murderous persecution of Jews and other minority groups, simply for being themselves.”