[Text on screen]: Why human rights matter on Holocaust Memorial Day

Today we remember the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis.

As well as millions of Romanis, homosexuals and disabled people.

Why is it still important today and what has it got to do with human rights?

The Nazis murdered millions in death camps like Auschwitz.

But it didn’t happen overnight.

During the 1930s, basic rights were taken away from Jews and other minorities.

One by one, the rights to work, to family life, to practise religion, were extinguished.

After World War II ended, the Allies put leading Nazis on trial at Nuremberg.

Some of the key prosecutors went on to create the European Convention on Human Rights.

Such as Cambridge Professor Hersch Lauterpacht.

And Conservative politician David Maxwell Fyfe.

Those who lived through the Holocaust understood what caused it.

They knew that protecting basic rights could be an early warning system against tyranny.

Concentration camps can’t exist in a society based on equality, justice and fairness.

That protecting individual rights stops minorities being persecuted by majorities.

The road to the gas chambers is paved by the denial of liberties.

A key lesson of the Holocaust is that we need to stand up against injustice.

We can honour the millions who died by fighting for human rights and a just world for everyone.