Holocaust day 2019

Today is Holocaust Day; a timely reminder that total catastrophe can so easily descend upon any of us. The orchid, set against a wall in the grounds of a synagogue in the old Jewish Ghetto in Cracow, Poland, is in memory of all who were murdered in the holocaust,  The wall was built from the remains of Jewish tombstones smashed by the soldiers of the Third Reich.

The results of a poll of more than 2,000 people in the UK, carried out by Opinion Matters for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, have just been published. Five per cent of the adults polled do not believe that the Holocaust ever took place and one in 12 believes that its scale has been greatly exaggerated. Two-thirds of respondents could not say how many Jews were murdered or "grossly" under-estimated the number. That worries me greatly.