Stone Age Māori Culture: John Banks says he's not a racist. And why no media mention of International Holocaust Day?(pn677)

If former National and ACT MP John Banks really believes Māori  are "stone age people with a stone age culture" and "genetically predisposed" to crime, alcohol addiction and educational underperformance" as he concurred with a questioner on the Magic Talk Morning programme  on Tuesday, how can he claim he is not a racist, and if he does not believe what he said,  as he now says, why did he say it in the first place?

Others certainly took offence at the remark. MediaWorks' chief executive, Cam Wallace, said there is no place for John Banks at the media company as long as he is boss.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (pn675)

On the way to Auschwitz:
Herded on cattle wagons

International Holocaust Remembrance Day  on 27 January commemorates the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews and 11 million others, including Romani, homosexuals and communists, by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

The entrance, "Work makes you free"

On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Red Army.