Hindu leader joins Auschwitz visit

Ramesh Kallidai, a leading figure of UK's Hindu community last week joined many sixth-formers and teachers on this moving tour.

Home Office Minister Paul Goggins and one of the leading figures from Britain's Hindu community Ramesh Kallidai last week joined hundreds of sixth-formers and teachers on a moving tour of Auschwitz.

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Participants on last Wednesday's visit, the latest to take place as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust's Lessons from Auschwitz Course, were shown the camp's barracks and crematoria before joining a memorial service at Birkenau.

Prior to the day, which was also attended by Interfaith advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, police officers and MPs from across the political divide, participants attended a seminar addressed by survivor Kitty Hart-Moxon.

Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum, added, "Visiting Auschwitz was shocking and deeply moving. Seeing the actual place where this senseless genocide took place left a much deeper impact on me than just hearing about it.

"Those who still persist in their meaningless diatribe of Holocaust denial have only to look at the mountain of human hair, personal effects, the gas chambers and the crematoria to come to their senses."

Goggins described the visit as "a deep and personal encounter with the suffering inflicted by the Nazis". He said, "I was particularly moved and encouraged by the response of all the young people who took part in the visit. They seemed to grasp the important lessons that the Holocaust still holds for the present day and for the future of our society."