Today we remember the sacrifice of those which gave us the freedoms we take for granted. The 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe is a moment of celebration and contemplation.
Heinz Belfer found refuge in the UK as war broke out
In my case I think of a chap called Heinz Belfer, a Jewish-German refugee to this country who, by the time victory in Europe was declared on April 8 1945, had been in Britain for six years after fleeing Germany.
Heinz was rounded up on Kristallnacht and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp but later managed to escape. He had made contacts with Rabbis in Berlin while boxing for the Jewish Germans before the war. They arranged a sportsman’s visa for him and he was able to flee to Britain in September 1939 as war broke out.
He settled in Manchester where he lived quietly for the rest of his days, running a local butcher’s shop. And he was always so grateful to Britain for taking him in.
Heinz Belfer was my grandfather. So if he hadn’t survived, I wouldn’t be here.
For this reason, I’m grateful for the many thousands of regular blokes who stepped up when they were needed to support Churchill’s fight against the vile cancer of antisemitism which gained traction in 1930s Europe, leading to the murders of six million Jews.
Nazis long gone but this vile ideology still exists today
Sadly, while Hitler and the nazis are long gone, their evil ideology lives on today. Israel on October 7 2023 is one such egregious example. The biggest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
Ideologues on the streets of Western cities now openly chant their hate-filled support for today’s nazis – Iran-funded terror groups including Hamas and Hezbollah whose stated aim, 80 years after the world said “never again,” is the eradication of all Jews and the state of Israel.
Totally unacceptable today. Just as it was totally unacceptable in pre-war Germany.
Meanwhile in eastern Europe we have a war which is now three years’ old and driven by the bad ideas of another tyrannical influence, Putin.
Be on the right side of history
Which is why on this day, of all days, we must remember what our brave young men gave their lives for – and what we, the beneficiaries of their sacrifice, stand for.
