The body of a man crucified by Islamic State killers hangs beside a road in Syria // SG

IT WAS only when the gates of the Nazi death camps were thrown open that the industrial scale of Hitler’s killing became known. Western diplomats had received scattered information about Nazi massacres of Jewish people and “undesirables” in occupied Poland and Russia but it was difficult to confirm. Yet just 70 years since the end of the Second World War, a genocide is taking place once again, this time against Christians.

Scores have already been murdered by Islamic State and thousands forced to leave ancient Christian communities in northeastern Syria and western Iraq as the extremists demand they either convert to Islam, pay an extortionate rate of tax or face execution.

Some have even been crucified. 

Despite concerns being raised by religious leaders including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the plight of Christian refugees is largely being ignored by the western world.

Its founder and international director Patrick Sookhdeo has recently returned from a visit to eastern Europe, where he was seeking refuge for the hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians who continue to live under the tyranny of IS.

He said: “The British government has said it will take 20,000 refugees and we have said, ‘Will you not take some Christians?’ But we have had no reply. 

“We have even put out a joint statement with Muslim Aid to the Government saying both communities are suffering, can’t you look after both? 

“What David Cameron is doing, we believe, is unfair. 

“He has said he will go to the camps to get the refugees, but the problem is that the Christians don’t like to live in the camp. 

“What they prefer to do is to live in church halls or else with families and the reason is that it is safer for them. What we are saying to the Government is that you need a broader based approach. 

“By all means take the most vulnerable people but don’t just take them from the camps because you are only going to get one kind of people. When it comes to other countries they all say that European legislation means you can’t discriminate between one religious community and another but we say surely the most vulnerable are the ones you have got to be taking in.” 

In areas controlled by IS, Christians have been crucified, beheaded, raped and subjected to forced conversion. Christian children are also being sold as slaves. 

Mr Sookhdeo added: “It is like going back 1,000 years seeing the barbarity that Christians are having to live under. I think we are dealing with a group which makes Nazism pale in comparison and I think they have lost all respect for human life. 

“Crucifying these people is sending a message and they are using forms of killing which they believe have been sanctioned by Sharia law. 

“For them what they are doing is perfectly normal and they don’t see a problem with it. It is that religious justification which is so appalling.” 

More than 700,000 of Syria’s population of 1.1 million Christians have already been forced to leave as IS militants expanded into the northwest of the country. Mr Sookhdeo believes there are now no more than 250,000 Christians living in Syria.

He said: “In Aleppo, to give you one illustration, there used to be 400,000 Christians four years ago. Today there may be between 45,000 and 65,000.”

Mr Sookhdeo now faces a race against time to find a new home for the hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians who he claims have “lost all hope”.

Mr Sookhdeo said: “Basically what we have to do is to persuade political and religious leaders to look kindly on this project. I think there is some concern about the numbers involved and the costs, but what we have been saying to these countries is that we can bear these costs so they are not a burden on poor impoverished states or even western states. 

“Many Christians and churches are saying we will open up our homes and churches, we will also provide money and support for the first year. 

“Because these people are Christians they can also integrate very quickly within the churches and most of them are professionals, like doctors and accountants, so they won’t have a problem finding work.” 

One country has already indicated a willingness to take 10,000 Syrian Christians, while others have said they will take between 150 and 200.

“I think things are starting to escalate,” he said. 

“But we cannot stop until we find a home for every one of them. 

“There are eastern European countries that are sympathetic but once we hit the UK and some of the other countries, they say they don’t want to do it.”

While he did not wish to reveal too much about the rescue operations that often take place behind enemy lines, he explained that the Christians were being taken to neighbouring countries before being moved on to their end destination.

“Everything is done officially,” he said.

“We have to get the visas for them first. With those who went to Poland, it was the Polish embassy in Beirut that had to process everyone. 

“Unfortunately it is a very dangerous world and we have to be very sensitive and cautious about this process.” 

Following a career in publishing, Lord Weidenfeld, 95, remains extraordinarily grateful for the risks taken by those who helped him reach Britain in 1938 and has decided to plough money into the fund as a result.

He said: “‘IS is unprecedented in its primitive savagery compared with the more sophisticated Nazis. When it comes to pure lust for horror and sadism, they are unprecedented. There never was such scum as these people.”

The peer said he hopes the project could replicate the work of Sir Nicholas Winton, who died earlier this year aged 106.

Sir Nicholas was a British former stockbroker who helped organise the Kindertransport programme that saved more than 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Prime Minister has previously said that Christians would be included in the Government’s vulnerable persons resettlement scheme, although no detail has been provided as to how they will reach them.

For more information about the Barnabas Fund visit https://barnabasfund.org.