It will be forever shocking to learn about the brutal deaths of millions of people in the Holocaust.

The reality of what happened during the Nazis’ genocide in the Second World War continues to have an enormous emotional impact, from horror to anger to deep sorrow.

Other acts of genocide – in countries such as Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia – continue to shake and disturb.

This Friday, Holocaust Memorial Day, provides an opportunity to remember genocide victims and learn lessons from the atrocities. Representatives of Bradford’s Jewish community, Central and Eastern European communities, gypsies, disabled people, faith groups, trade unions, modern day genocides, gay, lesbian and bisexual groups will attend Bradford’s Memorial Day event, to reflect upon the Holocaust and the millions affected by genocide.

Keeping the Holocaust and other such acts of persecution and annihilation in the public consciousness is vital, says Dr Martyn Housden, reader in modern history at the University of Bradford, who has written books and papers on the history of Germany, The Holocaust: Events, Motives And Legacy.

“It is fundamental to keep the memory alive,” he says. “Six million people died in an event at the heart of Europe. It is something that happened within living memory. It is a vital component of Western European identity.

“It is inevitable that memory fades over time, and that younger generations will think, ‘What has it got to do with me?’ So it is crucial to maintain an awareness.”

But Dr Housden believes care should be taken in addressing the issue. While he believes that learning about the Holocaust in school is paramount, he says trips to death camps could be harmful.

“Children are standing where hundreds of thousands of people were killed just for being who they were. What do you do with all that emotion? Some children have difficult emotional lives, it could be traumatic,” he says.

He also says there is a danger of this period in history being known only for its horrors, yet many people risked their lives to help save people.

One of the legacies of the Holocaust is that we now have more awareness of lines that should not be crossed. Dr Housden cites an example as Labour MP Tom Harris, who recently stepped down from his role as the party’s social media adviser after he created an online video portraying SNP leader Alex Salmond as Hitler.

Dr Housden became interested in the Holocaust while working on the history of ideas in Germany as part of a masters degree. “You run through Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel, Karl Marx and other thinkers who influenced the modern day, and in the middle was Nazism, but we didn’t touch upon it,” he says.

“I wanted to understand why a tradition that has given us something so good could produce something so shocking.”

He plugged the gap in his knowledge with a phD at the University of Bradford, considering the thought processes of those steering the annihilation.

He points out that many involved in the killing units were educated, middle class intellectuals, “yet they ended up doing something so wrong”.

“People are now better educated, so we should be developing a better society. What happened should act as a warning. It is about keeping your guard and not being complacent about the way we live,” he says.

“The Holocaust is not just about racism and where it can lead – it is about trying to do better. It is about being tolerant and compassionate. It is about being critical and not following the herd. The Holocaust would not have been possible had there not been hundreds of thousands of people involved.

“Students are often asked ‘why did ordinary people participate?’ The question is under what circumstances would you participate? What if there was a threat to you and your family?”

As Britons, he says we should also not forget how our nation has behaved in the past, for instance as a colonial administration. “You need to understand the world before the Holocaust. We are now aware of there being barriers in the way we behave, says Dr Housden.

“People discuss whether history repeats itself. The only reason it would repeat itself is if we didn’t learn from it the first time around.”

l For more about Bradford’s Holocaust Memorial Day, at Victoria Hall, Saltaire, on Friday at 11am, ring Anna Frater on (01274) 431498.