Eighteen million, six hundred and twenty-nine thousand , nine hundred - is the estimated death toll of victims of the holocaust [according to encyclopediaushmm.org]. One third of all Jewish people alive at that time, were wiped out, eliminated from our planet.

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Now, I won't stand here and load you with numbers, quite the opposite - I'd like you all to think for me, I'd like you to imagine this:

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the corner shop to the left of your house, the local park to the right. Your aunt and uncle live two roads down - and your future is so, so bright. You're playing around one day and then suddenly there's a banging at the door, you're pulled by the arm, pushed into the cupboard and told not to say a word otherwise you will perish. Then the stories that you'd heard all came true. You're separated from your mother and father, told to sleep on a raised panel of wood, squashed in between two other bodies. Night after night. Then, being guided to a dark room by someone who looks and speaks like   you - who you just might trust after all this - for a shower. Cramped in, the doors finally shut, and you hear the hiss of death from around you. Accept what has come for you, you squeeze the hand of the lifeless body next to you, and close your eyes - for the very last time.

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Children of the world. Children who could have grown up to be footballers, or authors, a banker, a doctor or a nurse; their options were diverse. But more than that,ore than anything, they were citizens. Imagine being killed, for the person that you are, for the one thing about you, that you cannot change. Imagine being petrified, being torn from your home and everywhere that you know. Imagine that.

 

For us, its comprehensible. We will never truly understand. Stepping into 2019, it would be grand to say that the real tragedy of the holocaust is recognised by all, but sadly, the truth is not that. So it is our responsiblity, to do the victims jutice, to educate our youth, to fight for their voices, that weren't heard. So maybe, just maybe their suffering could be paid the full tribute that it deserves in this world.

 

Eighteen million, six hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred, let us never forget.

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