HOLOCAUST LESSONS: SIXTY years after Russian soldiers saw first-hand just how far fear and hatred can lead human beings, thousands gathered in Auschwitz and London.

My town, Darlington, had its own event, as did many others across the UK.

On the same day, Arsenal footballer Thierry Henry launched an anti-racism campaign and, here in Darlington, a gay man - my son - was abused and nearly attacked in a pub.

We still have much to learn and discuss about our fear and hatred. Let educators, politicians and community leaders remember the Holocaust, not to look back, but to look again at how we are now. - Name and address supplied.

ONE of the very worst aspects of the horror camps was the merciless treatment of the children. It's to be hoped that the children never realised why they were there.

After the Second World War ended, a winning line in a then well-known literary competition was: "In the victory parade I'll hear Bill's organ". This was a reference to the writer remembering his fallen comrades.

The survivors of the horror camps would hear only the anguished cries of the victims. - Douglas Punchard, Kirkbymoorside.

IMMIGRATION

THE excellent letters (HAS, Jan 29) show how sickeningly ironic it is that Michael Howard chose the week of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where over a million innocent people - including Mr Howard's grandmother - went to their deaths, to launch a policy of a quota of asylum seekers entering Britain.

If a similar policy had been in place when Mr Howard's family came here, would Mr Howard be alive today to put the safety of so many fleeing persecution and the threat of death at risk?

Sadly for Mr Howard, history will judge him very harshly. The fact that the Tories have been struggling in the opinion polls and in the recent by-election in Hartlepool will not excuse him. It is far better to lead your party into an election with a sense of dignity than to drag them into the gutter. - Name and address supplied, Co Durham.

I MUST applaud the stance taken by the Conservatives on immigration. Labour has lost control of our borders, and hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers invade our country every year. They are hardly ever traced and deported back to their homelands.

I hope Michael Howard's stance paves the way for more votes for the Conservatives in the election.

We do not need foreign workers to come over to this small island and occupy jobs as we have hundreds of thousands of capable British men and women crying out for employment. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

CRIME

JOHN Young (HAS, Jan 27) reads meaning into my letter which simply isn't there. I did not even mention the rights of criminals.

My point was that the Tony Martin case should not lead people to think they have no right to defend themselves and their property. Consider, for example, the case of Eric Morton of Burnopfield, who was congratulated by a judge and given a £500 reward after he chased three thieves from his property and clobbered one of them over the head with a heavy branch (Echo, Nov 30). - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

MULLEN MYSTERY

DO we now have Peter Mullen junior also writing for the Echo? Surely the man pictured at the top of Page 10 last Monday (Jan 17) cannot be the same person as your Tuesday columnist? Or is Peter Mullen a master of disguise? - Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

Editor's Note: There is only one Peter Mullen.

ELLINGTON COLLIERY

THE closure of Ellington Colliery serves to highlight this Government's lemming-like policy on energy.

The butchery of the coal industry for vindictive political reasons during the Tory years has continued.

It is a national scandal that the sheer greed of a few coal owners is being allowed to dictate Britain's energy policy, not the Government.

The Socialist Labour Party calls upon the Government to take the coal industry back into public ownership and remove the obscenity of coal owners being allowed to squander a great national asset. - John Taylor, President NE Region Socialist Labour Party.

ORGANIC MILK

IT'S interesting that Darlington Memorial Hospital has decided to change its milk supplier to a local organic dairy producer (Echo, Jan 13).

The Food Standards Agency says that, on the basis of current evidence, there is no significant nutritional difference between organic and non-organic food. It is also a myth that non-organic farmers give their cows growth hormones. This practice is banned in this country. - Susan Williams, The Dairy Council, London.

LIGHT POLLUTION

HARRY Mead (Echo, Jan 26) deserves full support in his views against night lighting in domestic gardens.

We certainly need bright and safe street lighting, but all lighting should be directed downwards to where it is needed, otherwise it is a wasteful and environmentally destructive interference.

Professional astronomers in one of the remote desert states of the US have complained that their research is being destroyed by upward light pollution from a city dozens of miles away.

In contrast, I will never forget an early Easter scout camp in the Cheviots when some of us took a walk along a country road. We were amazed to feel that the whole of the outdoors was like a massive cathedral with the pipes of a huge church organ stretching high into the sky and changing colour as if to the rhythm of music.

This is the only time I have seen Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, but there are also planets, comets, eclipses and satellites to be seen with the naked eye - if only we will take a moment to let our councillors and MPs know that we want to be given back our night skies. - E Turnbull, Gosforth.

EDUCATION

RECENT correspondence has concerned low percentages for grade passes.

When the old School Certificate/Matriculation examinations were abolished in 1950 (or thereabouts) the GCE (General Certificate of Education) was introduced - I know, I sat the first one.

One had to either pass or fail, no A, B, C etc grades. The pass mark was 50 per cent which was the old Matriculation credit standard.

Then, two years later, one took GCE at advanced or scholarship level. Once GCSE was introduced the standards certainly dropped, hence the regrettably bad standards in English language and maths which exist today. - Julia K Blaik, Newton Aycliffe.

PENSIONS

HOW true is Ben Ord's letter (HAS, Jan 29). As a rear gunner on Lancaster bombers in the last war I am grateful to the government for a small war disablement pension. Each month it arrives I pass it on to the council to pay the rates. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

OPUS DEI

NOT so long ago there were headlines saying that the names of people who belonged to a Masonic lodge should be publicised for fear of a 'you help me and I'll help you' culture. Therefore, why the silence about membership of the Catholic Opus Dei? Surely the same rules should apply. - Peter Brown, Trimdon Village.