Standing up against hate

I read with interest and pride your article on the 75th anniversary of the involvement of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) and therefore members of our Durham and Wearside community - in the liberation of prisoners starved and tortured in this most notoriously horrific Nazi concentration camp.

Reading many national newspapers and listening to bulletins from London, you could be forgiven for thinking that our area of the country has been invisible and uninvolved in historic events such as the defeat of the Third Reich and Naziism.

But our working class community has a long and history of anti-fascist action that we can be very proud of.

From Sunderland sisters Ida and Louise Cook (Ida wrote novels under the name of Mary Burchell) who aided 29 Jews escape the Nazi regime in the three years up to the start of the Second World War, to the wholesale rejection of Moseley's blackshirts, to the brave Sunderland fighters who fought in the international brigades during the Spanish Civil War, and to more recent rejections of the BNP and the peace vigils and interfaith network across the city that works within Sunderland University to promote peace and tolerance.

The people of Sunderland and Durham need not be worried when they stand up against hate of any kind, they are standing on the shoulders of giants, and alongside many others in our area who would not look the other way like the villagers who wilfully ignored the suffering of their neighbours.

Marie Donnelly, Sunderland.

“A leisure centre would be a much appreciated facility.”