When the Strands of History Merge: Holocaust Memorial Day, Hitler & Ahmadinejad

Today is a national day of mourning in Israel as the Holocaust, the slaughter of Jews and others perpetuated by the Nazi regime is remembered, those who died commemorated.

There are many lessons for the modern world to be found in the suffering those people endured, the way some overcame all the odds to survive and many others were simply not so fortunate.

It seems that these lessons are never heeded until it is too late, however; how ironic that on this day, which is also Adolf Hitler's birthday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed to Switzerland by the Swiss premier and allowed to address a UN conference on 'anti-racism' in Geneva.

Many important states chose to boycott the conference; sadly, the United Kingdom was not among them.

Much was made of the fact that when Ahmadinejad began to spread his poison and outright lies about the Israeli government at the podium, several diplomats walked out, including the British ambassador to the UN.

They should not have been there in the first place, however; Ahmadinejad is a notorious anti-semite. He calls the Holocaust 'a myth', and has called for the state of Israel to be wiped off the map. What were the diplomats who attended expecting him to say?

It was fairly obvious that this run up to Durban II and Durban II itself will be an outlet for undue criticism of Israel, whilst ignoring the sins of any Muslim state. That is exactly what happened last time, and it is why many civilised nations are boycotting the conference this time, and showing it up for the joke it is.

Allowing Ahmadinejad to speak goes beyond a joke - even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon admitted that he used his speech to 'divide' and 'incite'. I'll ask again - what did he expect?

Many states have tried to reaffirm the spirit of the earlier conference; this means that Islam will be placed beyond criticism on the pretext of protecting religions from 'defamation', and the crimes of Muslim and other regimes will be ignored in favour of spewing obsessional hatred about Israel.

Here's what Ahmadinejad said:

'Following World War II they resorted to military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering.

'And they sent migrants from Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine.

'And in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.'

He then went on to call Israel a 'cruel and repressive racist regime'.

Obviously his own treatment of Kurds, Jews and other ethnic and religious minorities, not to mention women, simply does not matter; all of our focus should be on Israel, the only free nation in the Middle East.

As this nonsense becomes increasingly mainstream and dangerous, the words of Shimon Peres on Holocaust Memorial Day ring true:

"Nazism was defeated, but anti-Semitism is still alive. The gas has evaporated, but the poison remains."

Quite. Whilst Islam is immune from the criticism it constantly issues to everyone else, it always will remain - the UN should be fighting its attempts to silence the free world, not aiding and abetting.

As Burmese dissident Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said: “Please use your liberty to promote ours”

That is the founding ideal of the UN, and it is sad to see how far it has deviated from it.

Watch the rest of Ahmadinejad's speech, along with demonstrators dressed as clowns and wildly applauding Arab diplomats, here: