To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Russian troops, GUE/NGL President Gabi Zimmer has said that we should “never forget the horrors of the Holocaust and the lives of the millions who perished because of totalitarianism, fascism and racist ideologies”.

Given the worrying growth of far-right tendencies in Europe today, Zimmer added that this commemorative day was an “important opportunity to reflect on the parallels between this resurgence of the far-right that we see today and the fascism we read about in Europe's history books”.

The lesson from Auschwitz is that we can't let the seeds of racism, fascism, or anti-Semitism grow; we must oppose all forms of hatred and exclusion wherever they manifest.

And, as less and less Auschwitz survivors remain to recount what happened, it is ever more important that we don't forget how totalitarian ideas led to the horrific mass extermination of human beings at Auschwitz – especially for young people.