Soapbox

We should remember.

As time goes by, I wonder whether children will remember what happened during the Second World War or the various conflicts since. I believe that they will, far more than my own generation for whom it was very much a taboo subject when we were at school.

As I stood outside the Civic Center at the Civic Rembemrance parade a few weeks ago, I saw youngsters standing at attention, their faces showing every mark of respect for the war veterans who turned out in the pouring rain to mark the day, reflect and remember their old comrades who perished in those awful conflicts

I reflected on the war, as a time when many of my relatives perished at the hands of the Nazis. I have spent many hours trying to trace the ones who are left and, like many of my generation, I find it very heartrending exercise.

Travelling to Israel, the United States and Canada I have found many people like myself, who just wonder "what if". Many relatives are scattered around the world, as far as Argentina.

Conflicts of war left many generations affected, sometimes empty, wondering what it was like before. Large families were sometimes almost wiped out, as though they had never existed.

That Sunday, I took my 16-year-old daughter to the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicement and Women service, one of the most solemn that I have ever been to. What brought it home to me was when the names of the fallen from the community, and their ages, were being read out. The youngest was 19, the same as my son. My daughter turned to me and said: "That could have been my brother." She was in tears.

I have been to Holland to see Anne Frank's house. The staircase leading up to the attic is a haunting reminder. The Washington Museum and Yad Vashem, in Israel, are also grim reminders.

We still have conflicts all over the world, and those who suffer are the elderly and the young and the most vulnerable. We still have people who are starving; mortar shells are still raining and landmines are still maiming people. Children are crippled for the rest of their precious lives for the sake of conflicts they are too young to understand.

Councillor Diamond

is a Liberal Democrat

representative for

Wemborough Ward

on Harrow Council

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