SCOTLAND'S First Minister has honoured the millions of Jewish people that were murdered at the hands of the Nazis on Holocaust Memorial Day.
John Swinney also paid tribute to everyone who continues to be affected by the Holocaust and genocide across the world.
In a statement, Swinney said: "Today on Holocaust Memorial Day, we honour the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis – in one of the darkest chapters in human history.
"And as we proclaim 'never again', we also reflect on the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
"Today, vulnerable communities in Scotland hold very real concerns. Particularly the continuing threats of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
He concluded: "To those communities, Scotland is your home – where you should feel free to celebrate who you are without fear."
Swinney wrote a letter to the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) yesterday, paying tribute to the founder of an independent Scottish boarding school who fled his home country of Germany to escape the Holocaust.
Gordonstoun founder Kurt Hahn (above), a German Jew, fled his homeland to Moray in 1933 after speaking out about the Nazis’ rise to power.
He would soon settle in Moray and founded the school in 1934.
On Sunday, AJR was unveiled at a special service at the school, also marking Holocaust Memorial Day.
Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) second generation member Michael Flesch unveiled the plaque.
He was a student at Gordonstoun, and his father was at Salem School in Southern Germany, where Hahn was headmaster before fleeing to Scotland.
In a letter, Swinney said to the AJR: “The atrocities inflicted upon the Jewish people during the Holocaust remain one of darkest periods of human history, but it is the bravery of individuals such as Mr Hahn that can inspire the rest of us to stand in solidarity against forces which seek to target the most vulnerable members of our society.”
