Irish Holocaust survivor issues stark warning - 'It can very easily happen again'
The Holocaust could "very easily" happen again, a survivor of the atrocity who lives in Dublin has said.Suzi Diamond was speaking before a Holocaust Memorial Day event on Sunday.She said occasions like the one at Royal Hospital Kilmainham which was attended by the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister for Justice are important as people "don’t think the past could happen again, but it can happen again"."It doesn’t take any length of time for it to happen, the simplest thing, strike of a match, and something could blow up again," she said.Born near Budapest in Hungary, Ms Diamond’s father was taken away by Nazis during the war.In 1945 she, her mother and brother were rounded up, forced onto cattle trucks and brought on a journey that ended at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.Her mother died of typhoid at the camp, shortly after it was liberated.An Irish volunteer paediatrician, Bob Collis, brought two-year-old Suzi and five-year-old Terry to Ireland where they were adopted by a Jewish couple in Dublin.Speaking on Sunday, Ms Diamond said: "The past can actually happen again in the future, and you need events like this to bring it to people’s attention."This week a survey by the Claims Conference, an organisation which negotiates compensation for Holocaust survivors, found 9 per cent of Irish 18 to 29-year-olds believe the Holocaust is a myth and did not happen.Almost a fifth (19 per cent) said they believed it happened, but the number of Jews who were killed has been greatly exaggerated.Addressing the findings at Sunday’s event, Micheal Martin said: "I think we must be outraged and offended at that, and we must do everything we possibly can to combat that and to oppose that.""There’s an obligation on all of us, first of all, to oppose antisemitism wherever it manifests itself, and also to continue to educate generations to come in terms of what happened during the Holocaust."He was asked if, in the light of the figures and recent controversy of the generation of AI images of sexual abuse on X, social media companies need to be held to account.Mr Martin replied there needs to be a "greater focus" on equipping young people better "on how we deal with social media"."The key is to educate, to equip young people with the tools to be able to interpret new media platforms, to have developed critical inquiry and to have those skill sets," he said.Asked if the focus should be on social media companies, Mr Martin said: "Absolutely.""But equally, we do need a parallel track, you need more accountability."We need more protection for people, but we also need to work very hard to equip people to deal with it."Earlier in the day Simon Harris released a statement saying it is "our great shame" that the lessons of the Holocaust still have not been learned.He said: "Rising antisemitism, in Ireland and around the world, is an attack on history. It is an attack on truth."It is an attack on democracy and our democratic values."It is evil personified in the way it erodes basic values of decency and respect for other people."Mr Harris said: "It is profoundly disturbing that there is growing evidence that increasing numbers of young people in Ireland and around the world have a basic lack of awareness and understanding of the Holocaust."Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
