Remembering

This is one of eight reflections from student UNESCO Ambassadors at Lyng Hall who were invited to the Cities of Remembrance symposium in Ypres and Dunkirk which took place from 20-27 May. An earlier blog describes the background in more detail and points to seven other reflections from the visit. This reflection covers the theme of remembering and Daniel writes:

Remembering

I recently attended a symposium in Dunkerque that brought together young people, activists, and political leaders to confront one of the most urgent threats facing our world today: the rise of far-right extremism. 

What became clear to me during those days is this: remembrance is not just about looking back it’s about protecting the future. 

Far right ideologies do not emerge in a vacuum. History shows us, again and again, what happens when hatred is normalised, when people are divided, and when dangerous ideas are left unchallenged. From the Holocaust to the Rwandan genocide, the signs were there – subtle at first until they became impossible to ignore. 

Remembrance is how we keep those signs from being for-gotten. It is our strongest moral compass. It reminds us not on-ly of what happened, but how it happened how language was twisted, how communities were scapegoated, and how silence allowed cruelty to grow. 

To remember is to resist. It’s a refusal to let history repeat itself. 

We, as young people, inherit these memories not as guilt, but as responsibility. When we remember the victims of hate, we honour them by speaking out against new forms of it whether they appear in classrooms, online comment sections, or political speeches. 

And Remembrance gives us context, clarity, and courage. It teaches us that extremism doesn’t begin with violence—it begins with forgetting. 

Daniel speaking at the conference.