Last year’s Holocaust Memorial Day was the most poignant since 1945, coming just months after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Shoah.

A year on, and the incantation ‘Never Again’ is more vital than it has ever been. Although we do not know the exact number of hostages seized by Hamas who have died in captivity, for example, we know that it is many of them. If the current ceasefire deal lasts, we may soon find out the full, terrible details.

For most of the time since 1945, Never Again has been little more than an abstract expression of intent and goodwill. Yes, Israel has had to defend itself in war and from terror, but there has been a widespread acknowledgment that antisemitism and the wish to wipe out the Jewish people must be resisted.

The past year shows that can no longer be taken for granted. The threat from the likes of Hamas - and its backer, Iran - has always been clear. What has only really become clear since October 7 is the deep hold that Jew-hate still has even in a country such as ours. It is, as the late Rabbi Lord Sacks called it, a mutating virus - and today it has mutated into support for so-called ‘resistance’ to Israel and, in reality, to Jews, which is regularly paraded on the streets in hate marches.

Never Again is now far more than an abstract idea. It has a real, vital message: that Jews must be defended from those who seek to kill us.

This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is thus far more than an annual commemoration of the Shoah. It is an urgent, essential demand that never again should the the world turn its back on the quest to murder Jews.