Victims of Nazi atrocities will be remembered at ceremonies next week marking the end of the second world war in Europe. Survivors and relatives gathered at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hanover last Sunday to commemorate the estimated 72,000 people who were murdered there. Among those killed was a young German-born Jewish girl, Anne Frank, whose celebrated diary recalls those terrible times.

The dead of 1939-45 should never be forgotten. But we should also be mindful to count the dead of 2025. To know that in years to come, we will remember, record and honour victims of today’s recurring atrocities. Each day brings news of more appalling acts by governments and armed groups in wars and conflict zones around the world. One difference now is, unlike the Nazi atrocities, many of these crimes are very public knowledge even as they occur.

When confronted by such horrors, silence is unacceptable. Silence is complicity. To remain silent is to suggest nothing has been learned from the past.

So where is today’s outrage? Cries of protest are frequently not listened to. Take, for example, recent events in Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries. Imagine, if you can, what it’s like to be a defenceless Yemeni child or bewildered Ethiopian migrant bombarded without warning from on high by the most lethally sophisticated weapons the US and, shamefully, the RAF possess.

In one terrifying airstrike in Saada last week, 68 civilians, mostly Africans, were killed at a detention centre. The US suggests it was used by Iran-backed Houthi fighters to attack Israel and Red Sea shipping – but has produced no evidence. Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred people have died in Yemen since Donald Trump relaxed........

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