‘YOU do not speak for me’ — that’s the message from Bracknell’s MP after he slammed holocaust deniers in a passionate speech in the House of Commons.
Conservative James Sunderland joined MPs to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, an event which encourages the remembrance of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.
Held on the 27th of January each year, the millions more killed by the Nazis and the victims of genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur are also remembered.
Speaking yesterday (January 28) in parliament, Mr Sunderland said: “It is a great privilege to speak on this most important occasion.
“Between 1935 and 1945, an estimated 16 million people were killed by the Nazi regime. That included 6 million Jews, 7 million Soviet citizens, 3 million Soviet prisoners of war, 1.8 million non-Jewish Polish civilians, 312,000 Serbian civilians, 250,000 people with disabilities and 250,000 Roma Gypsies.
“The breadth of depravity was breathtaking. It included legalised social discrimination, involuntary hospitalisation, euthanasia, forced sterilisation, forced labour, sexual slavery, human experimentation and downright murder.
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“I say to those holocaust deniers who may be watching: ‘You do not speak for me or anybody in this place, and you need to take a look in the mirror.’
“Sadly, so few of those who witnessed these appalling events are still with us today, but we must record their testimony while we still can and capture the evidence of that time.”
Mr Sunderland served in the army for 27 years before becoming Bracknell MP in December 2019 and was posted in Germany on numerous occasions, including a four-year stint in Gutersloh from 2006 to 2010.
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During his time there, he said he visited former Nazi concentration camps.
He continued: “When I was based in Germany, we visited Bergen-Belsen and travelled further afield to Auschwitz—dark, scary and eerie places.
“I heard a number of questions, including, “Daddy, is it true that the birds don’t sing?” to which I replied, “Yes, I think so.” Of course, there is a reason why the birds do not sing.”
James Sunderland also served in Sierra Leone and Bosnia during his military career, places ravaged by crimes against humanity in years gone by.
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The MP added: “I have seen with my own two eyes atrocities in Sierra Leone and in Bosnia—atrocities of Governments, of Serbs, of Croats, Christians against Muslims and vice versa, the Revolutionary United Front against the people in Sierra Leone, and Makeni, Ahmići, Goražde and Srebrenica.
“More recently, we have seen Rwanda and Yemen, the Uyghurs in China, and Cambodia.
“This is happening right now—it is happening in our world, today, on our doorstep—and it must be stopped with the full power of the United Nations, NATO, military force, peacekeeping, peace enforcement and sanctions.
“Most importantly, for now, the evidence and the testimony from these current events must be captured, so that lessons are learned for the future and that those who perpetrate these dreadful crimes are brought to justice.”
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