‘DON’T ignore the lessons of the past’: that was the message from Oxford campaigners as they prepared to remember the victims of the Holocaust.

Oxford Stand up to Racism unveiled its ‘Never Again’ exhibition in Oxford Town Hall on Saturday with a stark warning that history may be about to repeat itself.

The group has pointed to a rise in racist and anti-Semitic attacks and what it calls a ‘legitimisation’ of extremist views by organisations such as the Oxford Union, which has recently given a platform to several right wing speakers such as French politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who is due to appear tomorrow.

 

The exhibition, which runs for a week ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, covers the rise of Nazism and the conditions that led to the killing of 17 million people.

But it also looks at resistance to far right movements in the modern day.

READ ALSO: Far right French Politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen to speak at the Oxford Union

One of the organisers, Julie Simmons, said: “What we are trying to do is highlight the parallels between the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s and the present day.

“The rhetoric and stigma used against Jewish people back then is the same that we hear about migrants and refugees now.

“There is a very real threat at the moment from extremist organisations which is really worrying.

“In Oxford we have seen some shocking incidents and there is no room for complacency here.

“We have to oppose this thinking by building a united movement.”

 

The past year has seen swastikas sprayed on the side of a community centre, white powder thrown onto a Jewish centre in Cowley Road and ethnic minorities targeted in racist attacks.

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Alison Ryde, president of the Oxford Jewish Congregation, said: “What is tragic is that the lessons that we hoped we’d learn from the Holocaust already seem to have been forgotten.

“The number of public figures who have recently referred to it in an inaccurate context, and have used it as a political tool for their own agenda is gravely worrying.”