This Sunday, many of us will remember and commemorate all those constituents from times past who laid down their lives to defend us from tyranny. Attending a cenotaph service is something I have always done (going back to the days when I was a 13 year old stopping off from my Sunday paper round). Now, I am privileged to attend as the local MP. We have four key Remembrance Sunday events in the constituency so I am attending each one in turn. Last year I attended at Heathfield, this year is the turn of Bexhill. Over the next two years, I will attend Little Common and Battle.

Last week, I joined pupils from our community for a poignant visit to the Auschwitz concentration camps in Poland. This trip was organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, who invited local MPs to invite schools to join them. Having only two sixth forms in the constituency, I was delighted that both Bexhill and Heathfield colleges were able to send pupils. I was joined by Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove. Between us, we had a Boeing 737 full of pupils from across the South East.

Auschwitz is a horrendous example to us all of the horrors which mankind can inflict unless checked and stopped. That 1.3 million people, mainly Jews, lost their lives in the most appalling way, before the Allies brought the mass murder to an end, is a reminder of how we need to act to protect people against brutal and extremist regimes. It would be refreshing if we could say with confidence that this could never happen again. However, coming off the back of my trip to the Syrian border last month, I am all too aware that there are still atrocities committed in our world and we must do more to stop them.

Having made these visits, and approaching Remembrance Service on Sunday, I ask myself the question as to whether we would still come to the aid of Poland, as a NATO country, were it attacked by enemy forces? It was the invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 that brought the UK and France into the conflict that became World War II. It therefore caused all of those names to be engraved on the cenotaphs across the towns and villages of our constituency. These were the same people who, with our allies, fought to liberate those from concentration camps such as Auschwitz.

We are blessed that so many of our forefathers were willing to give up their lives for the freedom of future generations, no matter which country they lived in. I hope all constituents will give up a small part of their Sunday to remember and respect.