Never again – what? | The Spectator Australia

I am challenged on this day, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to explain exactly what the world promised when it swore “Never again!” in the wake of the realisation of the horrors of the Holocaust, ended only by the defeat of Germany at the conclusion of World War II.

“Never again” what?

What will we never do again?

It is abundantly clear to me we are only too happy to repeat the previously unforgivable mistakes of the German citizens who had no affection for Hitler or the National Socialist German Workers’ Party: Nazis.

I’m horrified that we have forgotten what so quickly.

The phrase “never again” is frequently diluted and its necessary power eroded by its appropriation for much less…