HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

Tomorrow Wednesday (27th January 2021) is Holocaust Memorial Day, which is commemorated each year on the 27^th January because this is the day when the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.  

Now, perhaps more than ever, we should take time to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in other subsequent horrors which have followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and more recently are in Syria.

We should also forever remember the earlier genocides that inflicted on the Armenians and the Ukrainians. It is only right and proper that we honour the survivors and continue to challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today.

By the end of the Holocaust, six million Jewish men, women and children had perished in ghettos, mass-shootings, in concentration camps and extermination camps. As Allied troops made progress across Nazi-occupied Europe, they began to uncover concentration and extermination camps. 

The camp of Majdanek in Poland was the first to be liberated, in summer 1944.

Faced with defeat and advancing Allied armies Nazi forces burnt the crematoria and the mass graves in attempts to hide the crimes that they had committed. 

The  Operation Reinhardt camps of Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka were dismantled by the Nazis from 1943, and Auschwitz itself was evacuated in late 1944. 

The surviving prisoners, weak from starvation and ill-treatment, and poorly clothed against elements were forced to walk into the interior of Germany, away from the Allied armies, many thousands died on the enforced ‘death marches’. 

When Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27^th January 1945,  they found several thousand emaciated survivors, and the smouldering remains of the gas chambers and crematoria. In the following months, the Soviets liberated Stutthof, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbruck.

In the west, US troops liberated Buchenwald in April 1945, followed by Flossenburg, Dachau and Mauthausen. British Troops liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15^th April 1945. It is estimated there were over 60,000 prisoners in Belsen by April 1945. Approximately 35,000 prisoners died of typhus, malnutrition and starvation in the first few months of 1945.

Back in 1999, Jewish leaders, were once asked  Tony Blair (the then UK prime minister) whether we needed Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain? Jonathan Sacks (former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth for 22 years, until 2013) noted that that, when it was proposed that the UK have a Holocaust Memorial Day, Blair wanted the opinion of British Jewish leaders. 

They explained that they did not need a specific day to remember as Jews.

When it comes to remembrance Jewish people already had Yom ha-Shoa, their own memorial day, which falls soon after Passover in the Jewish calendar. Every Jew literally (or figuratively) lost family in the Holocaust. 

For Jews, Yom ha-Shoa is a grief observed. 

The Jewish leaders said that the Holocaust was not just a crime against Jews and other victims – Roma, Sinti, homosexuals, the handicapped, Jehovah’s Witnesses and political opponents of the Nazi’s among them; it was an assault on all of humanity.  

As has been said by a survivor previously perhaps we really need additional eleventh commandment along the lines of – Don’t be bystander! 

TIME TO TEACH OUR HISTORY

Plaid Cymru are calling on the Education Minister to support making Welsh history, including the history of black people and people of colour a mandatory part of the new curriculum. 

Every child and young person in Wales should learn about the story of Wales.

Sadly that has not been the case in the past but the new curriculum of Wales is an exciting, once-in-a-generation opportunity to change that, ensuring that the History of Wales in all its diversity is an integral part of each child’s education.

Plaid Cymru are therefore calling on you to support making Welsh history, including the history of black people and people of colour a mandatory part of the new curriculum.

Unless it becomes obligatory, the current inconsistent pattern will persist and an unique opportunity to empower young people with a knowledge of their past, including the mistakes, will be lost. 

Furthermore, teaching about the history of black people and people of colour must happen in all our schools as an essential part of a national effort to eliminate systemic race inequalities, allowing Wales to become a beacon for equality in a divided world.

Plaid Cymru strongly believe that all children have the right to understand their history and heritage and learning about the history of Wales is key for our next generation to make them informed and engaged citizens -  which is one of the primary purposes of this new curriculum.

Plaid Cymru therefore call on you to give the national story of Wales, in all its diversity, including the history of black people and people of colour, the status it deserves by putting it on the face of the Bill. 

This will also ensure that the teaching is fully supported by resources and training as our history becomes fully embedded into Wales’ new way of teaching and learning.

Welsh history belongs to all Welsh children, and they all deserve equal access to it.

Sign the open letter.

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YESTERDAY’S NEWS

A classic case of yesterday’s news and yesterday’s ideas from yesterday’s party.

Labour had thirteen years in power in Westminster to deliver radical devolution for Wales and failed.

They again promised a “radical extension of devolution” in 2017, as did Keir Starmer during his leadership campaign only to now deny Scotland’s right to hold a new referendum on independence.

As has been said  broken record won’t save a broken union, and neither will we re-build our economy with the handleless shovel that Labour in Westminster and in Wales have given us relation to economic powers.

Time and again Labour in Westminster have voted in the UK Parliament against more powers for the Senedd.

Labour in Wales are simply part of the problem rather than the solution, or as my father once put it, if you think Labour is the answer then you are asking the wrong question…

The Labour Party is being overtaken by events and the desires of the people of Wales - including half of their membership - to see our nation have full control over deciding its own future. 

More and more people want independence for Wales but if they want it, they have to vote for it in the Senedd elections.

TIME TO BUILD TRUST

Plaid Cymru calls for maximum transparency to build trust, and queries appointment system in open letter to Health Minister

In an open letter to the Health Minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, health spokesperson for Plaid Cymru, has called for greater clarity on the vaccine deployment programme, in order to build public trust.

While the deployment of the vaccine offers real hope, Mr ap Iorwerth raises “real concerns” over the pace, transparency and communications of the programme, and says that the public “simply want to know when they might expect the vaccine.”

Mr ap Iorwerth calls for a dashboard of information that would allow the public to track progress for themselves, including volume of doses delivered and administered by health board and by priority group. He said it would “go far” in helping to restore public trust.

Mr ap Iorwerth also asks for clarity on whether the Welsh Immunisation System is currently able to perform the tasks it was designed to do, including creating appointments, sending letters and automatically scheduling second doses.

Using examples of international good practice, Mr ap Iorwerth asks whether the Health Minister would consider measures such as:

• Vaccination centres open 7 days a week
• Widespread availability of drive-through style vaccination centres
• Reducing wastage by allowing prepared vaccines to be given on a ‘first come first served’ basis at the end of the day.
  

Shadow Minister for Health, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said,

“There are real concerns about the vaccine deployment programme, not least regarding the pace, transparency and communications during these initial stages. People simply want to know when they might expect the vaccine.

“Setting out targets in Welsh Government’s vaccination plan, and including a dashboard of information which answers questions around how the numbers of doses by health board and priority group, will go far in helping to build public trust, as they will be able to track progress for themselves.

“We have a short period of weeks before the damage of strict conditions, in particular school closures, become even more significant. We also currently have a virus infecting more people every week than are receiving the vaccine. Expanding the pace and scale of vaccination is thus essential, as is restoring public confidence that governments have a plan for winning this battle against the virus.”

A NEW YEAR

Whilst 2020 may have been the year of locking down, 2021 can be the year of locking in hope. .

In little over 100 days, Wales will elect a new government tasked with a recovery project like no other.

We won’t fix all of it at once. But my fervent belief is that a Plaid Cymru government, given the opportunity, could begin the process of transformational change that would set our nation on a path to better things.

A minimum wage of £10 per hour for every care worker, bringing them in line with NHS salaries.

A £35 a week payment for every family forced to cut corners at the end of every month.

Free childcare from the age of one for every son and daughter, generating thousands of jobs and boosting household incomes by allowing many parents to return to work.

A pledge that no child goes hungry.

Creating 10,000 new affordable homes each year for five years.

And while many are vowing to build back better only independence allows us to build back ‘best.’

Come the spring, change will be in the air. But on May 6th the new normal is up to you.

A confident, outward looking, socially just and equitable Wales is here to win. After all the sacrifice, the grief, the loss and hardship that’s the least we deserve.

Blwyddyn newydd dda.

Adam Price Leader of Plaid Cymru