A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony 2015

But Holocaust Memorial Day is not just a memorial to those six million innocent Jewish men, women and children it is also universal because the Jews in this story represent all of us. 



That is why the Holocaust is not just a Jewish tragedy, nor merely a dark page from the Second World War, but a warning and a lesson to all of us of all faiths in all times. The memory of this suffering and the unspeakable, yet almost incredible, details of the Nazis' diabolical enterprise can help future generations, wherever they may be, understand not just what happened across Europe, but how this came to happen.  And why similar terrible things have happened in places such as Bosnia and Rwanda. It should also help us reflect on how we should respond to other dreadful events in the Middle East today.  



We still often fail to stop these tragedies in time because the circumstances are always different but this only makes Holocaust Memorial Day more important and relevant than ever, for it enables us to rally together, to recognize the workings of wickedness, to exercise vigilance and, hopefully, to stop such atrocities in the future.  I could have read from the writings of those like Anne Frank, who wrote so touchingly about their experiences, but what I find so deeply poignant and powerful are the three lines scratched anonymously into a wall by a victim of the Holocaust, which read:



"I believe in the sun even when it's not shining.



I believe in love even when I don’t feel it.



I believe in God even when He is silent".