Mayoral address at Holocaust Memorial Day 2026
Published: 27 January 2026
Tuesday 27 January 2026 is
Holocaust Memorial Day, marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp complex.
We remember the millions of lives lost and the millions of others persecuted and in subsequent genocides.
The Mayor of Deal, Cllr Mike Eddy, spoke before those who gathered at the Memorial Stone at St George’s at 11am on Tuesday 27 January.
He said: "Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
"Eighty-one years ago today the full horror of humanity's cruelty to others was revealed to the world.
"Cruelty on an unimaginable scale. Cruelty on an industrial scale.
"How could such cruelty arise?
"We can all be a bit cruel. A bit mean. A bit nasty. To people who are different. Who worship different gods, who look different, who speak different.
"But we try to snuff out that cruel streak with kindness, with decency, with respect.
"But some don't try. They take the easy path of being nasty, of being a bully, of being cruel.
"There's nothing to show at first sight who will be cruel, be nasty. It never says on their foreheads "Beware. Nasty person"
"The Canadian poet, Leonard Cohen, made that clear in his poem about one of the architects of the industrial cruelty we remember today. A person called Adolph Eichmann.
"The poem reads
ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT ADOLPH EICHMANN
EYES..................................................Medium
HAIR..................................................Medium
WEIGHT............................................Medium
HEIGHT..............................................Medium
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES........None
NUMBER OF FINGERS....................Ten
NUMBER OF TOES...........................Ten
INTELLIGENCE.................................Medium
What did you expect?
Talons?
Oversize incisors?
Green saliva?
Madness?
"Eichmann was just average, medium
"Eichmann ran away from justice, but justice caught up with him.
"Like all bullies, like all those who let the cruelty out, he was coward. He took the easy path. He let his cruelty out and then ran away.
"Being cruel, being nasty is the coward's way.
"What is hard, often the hardest thing anyone can do, is standing up to bullies, standing up to cruelty, to spite.
"And, sadly, there is too much nastiness, too much cruelty, too much spite in the world today.
"And we must all stand up against it because we need to reject the spite, the nastiness, the cruelty that ruined so many lives eighty-one years ago in case it overwhelms us again.
"Let's stand up for kindness, for decency, and for respect."