22nd November 2020

 Two grim anniversaries this week. A convoy of 100 cars and bikes here marked the 46th anniversary of the Birmingham pub bombings. At the same time, a different community commemorated the 80th year since the Warsaw ghetto was sealed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. We remember that dark time when 380,000 Jewish people were forced into a tiny area of unimaginable deprivations and terror. Over 80,000 died in the ghetto due to starvation, disease and overcrowding. In the Birmingham massacre, the IRA decided that murder was an ‘acceptable’ means to achieve their aims.  In the Warsaw atrocity, it was yet another symptom of the irrational, perpetual, 3000 years old stupidity known as antisemitism.  It’s now the 21st century. Isn’t it time we all took a look at ourselves and cried halt?  Is there anything that decent individuals can do to stop the murder of innocents for another man’s ‘cause’?  For me, I write about it so that not only do we never forget but that we recognise its creeping symptoms and stop it in its tracks. mybook.to/themazurekexpress