Holocaust Memorial Day 2018: 92-year-old Kindertransport survivor warns about politics of division

'Lessons have not been learnt in the 20th century. As far as the 21st century goes, we seem to not only have not learnt the lesson but are on track to copy it'

Austrian-born Harry Bibring arrived in Britain with his sister in 1939 - but never saw his parents again (Holocaust Educational Trust)

A 92-year-old Kindertransport survivor has issued an urgent call to put a stop to the politics of division before it’s too late, warning that the world has “learnt nothing” from the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany.

Speaking ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, Austrian-born Harry Bibring, who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport in 1939, said he was deeply “concerned” about the state of the world and feared for the future of his great-grandsons.

The lecturer and former engineer, whose mother was killed in a Nazi camp in Poland in 1942, said it was imperative citizens around the world reject “differentiation and discrimination” and heed warnings from the past.

“Lessons have not been learnt in the 20th century. As far as the 21st century goes, we seem to not only have not learnt the lesson but are on track to copy it,” he told The Independent.

“We need to get people to take lessons from this disaster – the greatest crime committed in the history of mankind – before something like this happens again.”

Speaking about Donald Trump’s shock victory in the 2016 US election, he said: “I think it’s very important that he doesn’t get a second term.

“We have a leader of the greatest country in the world who wants to differentiate and have prejudice, which should not be tolerated. It’s up to people in the US to remove him, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Mr Bibring’s warning comes as new figures reveal over a quarter (27 per cent) of UK adults have personally witnessed one or more incidents of hate speech in the last year, and 12 per cent have witnessed more than five incidents.

Research commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and conducted by YouGov found 41 per cent of those who witnessed incidents said they were racially-motivated.

Over half of the adults surveyed (59 per cent) witnessed hate speech on social media, 41 per cent in the street, 23 per cent on public transport and just under a quarter (24 per cent) in a pub or shop.

When asked to share what they witnessed, many reported seeing anti-immigrant or anti-refugee hate speech, racist abuse or anti-Muslim comments.

Chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Olivia Marks-Woldman said the findings were “shocking”.

She said: “We know the repeated use of words normalises dangerous language and allows hatred to take root, which can ultimately lead to persecution.

“Today is about remembering the atrocities of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides, but also about finding ways to make sure they can never happen again. Recognising the power our words have is an important first step.”

The sentiment was echoed by Mr Bibring, who works with the Holocaust Educational Trust. He asks his students to take an oath never to engage in any form of discrimination of people who are different from them – and commit to reporting instances of discrimination by others.

“You may notice I haven’t used the word race, because in my book there’s only one race on this planet, the human race, that is all we have,” he said.

“I say to my students, ‘right before you go, you thought this was all free but I’m afraid I do need payment now. I want you to promise me, never engage in any form of discrimination of people who are different from you and if you see it happening somewhere else, I want you to report it to the nearest authority’.”

A total of 2,111 adults were surveyed online by YouGov between 1 and 4 December – 564 had witnessed hate speech in the last year. The figures have been weighted.