I have recently returned from Berlin, a vibrant, edgy, complex, fascinating city.

While walking past the East Side Gallery (one of the few remaining parts of the Berlin Wall), the Riechstag, the Brandenburg Gate and the nearby Holocaust memorial, it is impossible not to feel the weight of Berlin’s history, and be moved by it.

The Holocaust Memorial consists of individual concrete blocks laid out on an undulating floor, divided up by paths to make a maze; as you approach the centre the blocks increase in size so that it gets progressively darker.

The undulating ground, many paths and lack of light create a disorientating sense of ‘getting lost’ – but wandering through the maze gives you time to reflect on the Primo Levi quote written on the wall at the entrance, ‘It happened, and therefore it could happen again; this is the core of what we have to say’.

This year, Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on tomorrow - January 27 - the date of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.

It is a time to pause and remember the millions of people who suffered and who were murdered during the Holocaust, and also subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. It is a time when we should seek to learn the lessons of the past so that Primo Levi’s quote is not realised time and time again.

It is a time to recognise that genocide does not just take place in isolation – it is a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism, and the language of exclusion and hatred are not challenged and checked. On Holocaust Memorial Day we can honour the survivors of genocide, and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today. How?

In the words of survivors: ‘This life is about what we can do … whether we’re doing something for our community or something bigger. We make the world the way it is’ - Kemal Pervanic, Survivor of Omarska Concentration Camp, Bosnia.

‘We must try to build bridges with one another and respect humanity despite of difference’ - Sophie, survivor of the genocide in Rwanda.

‘What can one person do? You can make friends of course, and do what you can’ - Daoud Hari, survivor of the genocide in Darfur.

Jenny Ramsden, Faith to Faith Worker, Touchstone