On January 27 each year, we remember the millions of people who were murdered in the Holocaust. It is a time to reflect not only on those who were killed, but also on those who did the killing.

How did ordinary people lose their way so completely that they felt it acceptable to treat others in such a barbaric manner? And why did so many ignore what was happening?

There is a quote from the Magis Center: “If we lack love, we can offer little resistance to hate.”

There lies a problem that is as important today as it was in the 1930s and 40s. Those involved in the attempt to wipe out a race of people — and all those opposed to them or deemed ‘different’ — had lost their moral compass, the compass that has love as its magnetic pole.

It is too easy, when we are hurt or when we see others’ shortcomings or weaknesses, to hold a grudge, put up barriers, or blame our problems on others.

We do not want to forgive, and we lose sight of the fundamental teaching of all faiths: that we should love one another, be tolerant of others’ differences and, more than that, embrace those differences and find joy in diversity.

We should not be fearful because people differ in culture, faith, speech or thought. We need to recognise that such differences enrich our lives and our society.

We must foster openness towards all we meet, acceptance of people as they are, and remember that it is fundamental to who we are to love and to stand up to injustice, and to those who seek to tyrannise and crush the weak and vulnerable.

If more of us truly learned the lessons of history, the world might be a better place.