Holocaust Needs to be Remembered as 'Real Event', says Archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has said that the Holocaust needs to be remembered as a real, historical and well-documented event. In a statement to mark the UK's Holocaust Memorial day, he said that the day should be marked for future generations.

"We need ... to ensure that, when in future we have no survivors physically amongst us, the evidence that has been so painstakingly collected by organisations such as the Yad Vashem Foundation continues to be available to all who wish to approach and study it with the respect that is due."

Attempts to challenge the Holocaust as history, such as the recent conference in Iran, brought disgrace on those who sought to do so for political purposes, the Archbishop noted.

"The clear implication was that if it had happened at all, it had been greatly exaggerated from motives to do with Zionism and a European guilt complex.

"It cannot be acceptable to treat the systematic murder of six million Jews and others as a propaganda issue for a particular cause," he added.

Dr Williams paid tribute to survivors of the Holocaust and to those who sought to ensure that it was meticulously documented and researched. He singled out the work of Sir Ellie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust who had worked to ensure that the suffering would be remembered. He warned that challenges still lie ahead and that the Holocaust Memorial Day was not simply about commemorating the past:

"It is a day to recommit in the most practical ways to continue the struggle against the underlying anti-Semitic causes of that event which remain present and virulent within our communities in this country as in others."