Dundee should remember Holocaust Victim John Fletcher

Click above to read more about John Fletcher in the Evening Telegraph

Today's Evening Telegraph highlights the story of John Fletcher a Dundonian who was murdered in the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp.  I am calling for the city of Dundee to find some way to commemorate John Fletcher and other victims of the Holocaust. I have asked Dundee City Council to consider how to commemorate John Fletcher and have asked the Holocaust Memorial Trust for their thoughts on how to commemorate John Fletcher.


John Fletcher was born in the Overgate in Dundee in 1892.  He served in the British army in the First World War and after the war moved to France, married a French woman and became a French citizen.  He lived in a town called Albert and worked in a aircraft factory there.  After the German invasion of France the factory was requisitioned by the Nazis.  John Fletcher was arrested in May 1942, probably on suspicion of helping British airmen escape after they had been shot down.  He was eventually taken to Auschwitz Birkenau and died there with the date of death given as 30 July 1942.  More details are in today's Evening Telegraph. 

Thanks to the Evening Telegraph for highlighting the story of John Fletcher who was murdered in the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp.  John Fletcher's story is a tragic story, along with millions of other tragic stories which reflect the ability of humans to act in an appalling manner.  These are stories that we should remember and resolve to say, 'never again.'  The Holocaust is not a remote historical event, this was within living memory for some people still with us today and the sad fact is that other genocides have happened since.
John Fletcher's tragic story is important.  I think that we should look for some way to mark this in Dundee.  Whilst the Overgate has changed significantly since he lived there; this is a man who lived in Dundee, who walked our streets, who grew up here and then was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz Birkenau.
Whatever happens as a result of this call it is important that we all commit to saying, 'never again' and recognising the inherent value of every human being.