Stevenage marks Holocaust Memorial Day

Stevenage Borough Council will mark this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day virtually on Thursday 26 January.

This year marks the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

The council is encouraging residents to come together virtually at 11am on Thursday 26 January to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

A video of Stevenage Mayor, Councillor Sandra Barr; Leader of Stevenage Borough Council, Councillor Sharon Taylor; MP for Stevenage, Stephen McPartland; Stevenage Youth Mayor, Eden Searle; Terry Wolfe, Stevenage Liberal Synagogue; and Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Robert Voss CBE CStJ will be played on the council’s YouTube and Facebook.

This year’s theme is ‘One Day’, that we put aside to come together to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and the genocides that followed elsewhere, in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide. We learn more about the past, we empathise with others and we take action for a better future.

To mark HMD, you could pick One Day in history and learn about that day. Survivors of the Holocaust and of genocide also often talk about the One Day when everything changed, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for better.

One Day is just a snapshot in time and therefore cannot give the full picture, the context, the background that is needed, but it can help bring a piece of the full picture to life.

Mayor of Stevenage, Councillor Sandra Barr, said: “It is important that we mark Holocaust Memorial Day despite the challenges we face from the pandemic – which is why we’re asking everyone to come together virtually.

“Together we will remember all those who suffered in the holocaust and subsequent genocides that have taken place across the world while honouring survivors by joining the call ‘Never Again’. And maybe One Day we will live in a world where genocide and hate crimes are a thing of the past.”