From The Times
April 29, 2009

Gordon Brown's pledge from the darkness of Auschwitz

Ruth Gledhill Religion Correspondent

Gordon Brown pledged to battle against “darkness” in the world as he went on an emotional tour of Auschwitz with his wife Sarah yesterday.

The Prime Minister said that the Nazi death camp – where more than 1.1 million Jews and 200,000 others died – was also a reminder that the human spirit would overcome.

Mr Brown and his wife were shown around Auschwitz and the nearby Birkenau camp by the director of the museum, Piotr Cywinski.

The Prime Minister saw gas chambers and the shaved hair of inmates – which was collected and sold by the Nazis – along with piles of shoes and spectacles belonging to those who were murdered. He was visibly moved as he placed a candle at the Death Wall, where summary killings by firing squad were held.

Times Archive, 1945: Four million deaths at Oswiecim

A State commission has found that more than 4,000,000 people perished at Oswiecim between 1941 and the beginning of this year

Related Links

Mr and Mrs Brown also walked along the railway tracks on which victims, packed in trains, arrived from across Europe between 1940 and 1945, and stood in the lookout tower where their jailers kept watch.

Mr Brown wrote in the Auschwitz visitors’ book: “What we have seen this afternoon is a harrowing testament to the murder of so many who suffered the extremes of terror. What has happened here is a shared human story, a perpetual reminder of all the darkness of which the world is capable, but also a story of what the world can endure and survive.

“In this place of darkness, I reaffirm my belief that we all have a duty, each and every one of us, not to stand by but to stand up against discrimination and prejudice. As we remember the worst of our past, we must each commit ourselves to serve the best of our future.”

The Prime Minister will reveal in the Commons today details of a new award to recognise British citizens who helped Jews and other persecuted groups during the Second World War.

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “The Prime Minister has been a longstanding supporter of Holocaust education and we are . . . delighted that [he] and the British Government will create an award of recognition in memory of these British heroes.”