We must make sure the phrase ‘never again’ means what it says

My visit to Auschwitz last week was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. I felt wave after wave of revulsion at the sheer scale of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder. One million Jews killed in Auschwitz. Six million in total. All for the same reason. Because they were Jewish.

Amid this utter depravity, there was a particular image that continues to haunt me. It was a photograph of a German guard standing with Jewish prisoners – and smiling. As I looked across other photographs, I saw he wasn’t the only one. Other guards were adopting similar poses. These were not German soldiers reluctantly following orders or trying hide away from the horrific nature of their crimes. They were standing there proudly, as if wanting to be seen.

I’ll never forget how I felt at that moment. It illustrated to me, more powerfully than ever before, how the Holocaust was not simply the evil deeds of a few bad individuals forcing others to do unspeakable things.

The Prime Minister and his wife Victoria, who is Jewish, visited Auschwitz last week ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day (Image: Getty)Getty Images

It was a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people who were consumed by the hatred of difference, each playing their part in the dehumanisation and attempted destruction of an entire people.