WATCH: Derry Holocaust Memorial Day vigil 'Never Again Means Never Again'

People from Derry and beyond gathered in the Peace Garden to pay their respects to victims of the Holocaust and other genocides on Holocaust Memorial Day.

The 'Never Again Means Never Again' vigil was organised by Jews for Palestine Ireland and featured Jewish, Palestinian, and other local speakers.

Becca Bor from Jews for Palestine opened the speaking, saying she is ‘disgusted’ to see the suffering of the Jewish people deployed to justify the actions of the Israeli State.

“As people know, in the Holocaust six million Jews and six million other people were murdered. The Holocaust was an absolute crime against humanity and we try to remember it every year in order not to repeat the genocidal actions against any group of people ever,” she said. “What we see right now is a genocide in Gaza. So when we say ‘never again’ we mean never again to anyone anywhere.

“As a Jewish pro-Palestine activist I am disgusted with the way the Holocaust, the trauma of the Holocaust has been weaponised in order to justify the Zionist project. That's why we think it's important that on a day like today when people around the world will say 'We stand and remember the Holocaust' but drape themselves with an Israeli flag we say 'No, not in our name'.”

BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti spoke about his experience visiting a Nazi concentration camp as a child and his horror at seeing the ‘level of evil’ humans are capable of.

“It's very hard to say anything fitting this occasion. With Holocaust remembrance we are reminded of the common humanity we still hold on to despite everything,” he said.

“I remember as a little child my mother took me to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. I had no idea what a concentration camp was and my mother did not say anything. When we got there – my brother and I could read English – and we started reading and that was my first experience with the Holocaust.

“In Dachau, I got to learn how an entire community was exterminated because of who they are and that is probably the only thing I can remember.

“I saw the frightening images of starved people. I saw the images of dead people and I just remember, very vaguely, the only thing that stuck with me is: How could anyone do this to anyone? How could people reach that level of evil, to exterminate a community because of who they are?

“When the Gaza genocide started I remembered it's not just those who did the extermination, it's also those who stood on the side watching and doing nothing or selling computers like IBM did to the Nazi Germans or selling other equipment that allowed the Germans to carry on with their genocide.

“Just like our Jewish brothers and sisters have said 'never again and we shall never forget' today – and without any comparison – we're saying no to any genocide and we shall never forget but we shall always hold on to humanity.”

Another member of Jews for Palestine Ireland, Sue Pentel, also spoke at the vigil.

“Today Israel, its allies and those who claim to stand for the Jewish community in Ireland will throw words like 'Holocaust, safety, security and antisemitism' around as a protective cover, to avert their gaze from the livestreamed genocide that's taking place in their name,” she said.

“More than 1% of Gaza's people have been killed, the population is being starved, the cities are rubble and you have fainting spells at the sight of a flag. We will hear about the rise of antisemitism in a frame that fails to identify the actual dangers of race hatred to Jewish and other racialised groups and attempts to elevate antisemitism above other forms of racism

“My favourite quote at the moment: a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, someone who fought back in very, very dark days Marek Edelman said 'to be a Jew means always being with the oppressed, never the oppressor'. Free Palestine.”

Majida Alaskari from Palestine, now living in Buncrana, said it was difficult but important to commemorate atrocities such as the Holocaust.

“Of course, it is not easy to stand here and memorialise the Holocaust or the genocide in Gaza or Palestine or anywhere,” she said.

“Unfortunately when you speak about the loved ones we lost in a war it is not easy to account for them but it is really our honour to remember them and speak about them and be their voice even if they are not here today.

“Never again, not only in the Middle East. Never again in Europe, the UK, or the United States. To support genocide is also murder.

“The freedom now to be standing as brother and sister, Jewish and Palestinian, the most important thing is to be a strong voice for love, peace, support and solidarity.”

Socialist activist Maeve O'Neill also offered her solidarity.

“I just want to briefly say something as part of the LGBT in Derry community because in the Holocaust people in the LGBT community were sent to concentration camps, arrested and harassed and just to send a message of solidarity to the people of Palestine,” she said.

“We know oppression and we understand violence against our community and in that all oppressed people should stand right now against genocide.

“Even before October 7 LGBT people in Israel were rising up against the far right Israeli government and a member of that government did say that homosexuality poses a greater threat than that of Hezbollah and Hamas.”

A moment of silence was held for everyone killed in the Holocaust, other genocides and everyone killed in Palestine.