The holocaust is rightly remembered (SA, Jan 21) for the murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime – who referred to it using the euphemism “the final solution to the Jewish problem”.

However, we should not forget that it was not only Jews who suffered such a fate; there were followers of other faiths (predominantly Roman Catholics), gypsies, homosexuals, ‘mentally subnormals’, and political opponents (especially communists).

We should remember that this is what can happen when a Government (‘The State’) is allowed to assume too much power; and is allowed to suppress ‘freedom of speech’ – the right to express an opinion, including criticism of the ‘ruling power’. We must remember how precious the freedoms we currently enjoy in this country are; and we must be prepared to defend them.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

We should also remember that the horror of the holocaust happened in a Western, ‘developed’, democratic country of educated people. (Although Hitler was a dictator, he was elected ‘by the people’!) Many now find it difficult to understand how it could have been allowed to happen. The answer lies in the quotation from the renowned, 18th Century, democrat, Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” How apt is this today?

Malcolm Morrison Prospect Hill Swindon