Does History Matter?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Those words took on a very chilling meaning for me last week. I was in Hamburg. Each morning I passed a statue outside the Dammtor station commemorating 'Kindertransport'. Between 1938 and 1940 thousands of refugee Jewish children were enabled to escape Germany and were brought to Britain. Many of those left behind perished as part of Hitler's "final solution". More information about Kindertransport can be found here.

I also noticed around the city, and in the street where we were staying, small plaques in the pavement 



they noted who had lived on that site - and what happened to them.


Hitler came to power through deploying demagoguery, scapegoating and ultra-nationalism. After the extent of what had happened became clear - there was a worldwide move never to allow such things to happen again - but as the quote from George Santayana says - "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

A decreasing number of people can personally remember this awful period in human history. We need to keep reminding ourselves - and others - of the awful capacity for evil which can arise. Demagoguery, scapegoating and ultra-nationalism have had little impact in Europe over the last 70 years - but new clouds are rising over the horizon. We play with fire at great risk!