Saturday 27 January is World Holocaust Day 2018, as we remember the millions murdered in the Holocaust, by Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
The date also marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps.
And last summer saw members of the England U21s squad and staff visit Auschwitz, when they were in Poland for the U21 Euro Finals.
With the squad staying in nearby Krakow and with a day to spare ahead of their semi-final against Germany, the opportunity to visit Auschwitz was offered to the players.
“It was something that we wanted to do,” explained U21s head coach Aidy Boothroyd, looking back at the visit last June.
“It is a place that I’m glad I’ve been to, it just puts things into perspective and in a strange way, I was pleased that a lot of the lads wanted to go and visit to show their respect.
“We all knew what went on there, whether it’s through what we learnt at school or have seen in films and documentaries since then, but until you go there it’s hard to really explain how it feels.
“It’s a poignant, eerie and quite an upsetting place, but it’s somewhere that everybody should try and visit to see and learn more about the extent of what happened there.”
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is the charity that promotes and supports Holocaust Memorial Day when we can honour the survivors of these regimes of hatred and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today.
Find out more about the Young Lions’ visit to Auschwitz last summer.
