Yesterday Swindon marked the Holocaust Memorial Day with a ceremony at the Cenotaph. Although I was unable to be there in person, I took some time during the day to pause and reflect on the human tragedy that occurred, and on our duties as citizens to ensure it never happens again.

One of my great concerns is that time passes, so the great stain on history that was the Nazi’s so called “Final Solution” will begin to lose its resonance.

From being part of our living record from knowing survivors or even those who liberated the camps, our knowledge may decay so that it first becomes just another part of a history lesson, a TV drama, or a novel.

One of the reasons why it is so important to keep our understanding of these events in the forefront of our minds is that it reminds us all of our duties as humans and fellow citizens.

While it might help us sleep easily to think the horror of the gas chambers and the execution squads was the product of small minority of sick and evil people, that is not accurate.

Most tyrannical regimes undermine or subvert people’s sense of responsibility to each other; people forget their duties.

The word duty is most important.

Although we speak about our rights, whether those under British law and the European Convention on Human Rights that actually serve us, or articles from the US Constitution which do not, this is just half the story.

Unless we accept and honour our duties, any rights are meaningless.

Duties challenge us to think of others, to put our communities first.

The good news is that across Swindon I see countless examples of people who are putting their communities first.

This goes far beyond the voluntary and charitable groups that might first spring to mind.

We also have those who run sports clubs, educational and vocational groups.

I will also add local councillors to the list. That is not just those of us on the borough council who all made a choice, once elected, to put the needs of all 215,000 residents of the borough first.

It also includes the town and parish councillors, many of whom are less well known outside their immediate area, yet they have also accepted the burden of putting their whole communities’ needs first.