HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

BY MARTI STELLING (SHE/HER)

27 JANUARY MARKED

Holocaust Memorial Day.

Across the world, millions of people came together to reflect on the events of the Holocaust, genocides, and persecutions on a worldwide scale.

This year, the national theme was ‘Ordinary People’. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust explained:

“Genocide is facilitated by ordinary people. Ordinary people turn a blind eye, believe propaganda, join murderous regimes.

“And those who are persecuted, oppressed and murdered in genocide aren’t persecuted because of crimes they’ve committed –they are persecuted simply because they are ordinary people who belong to a particular group or country.”

The events commemorated the past, as well as exploring the continued persecutions of the present, encouraging positive actions that make a difference to the future.

The University hosted a Holocaust Memorial Day Lecture on 24 January, as well as a conversation with author Rebecca Clifford.

Clifford is the author of Survivors: Children’s Lives after the Holocaust, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Wolfson History Prize and a finalist for the 2021 Cundill History Prize.

York Minster held its annual Holocaust Memorial Commemoration on 25 January.

600 candles were arranged to form the Star of David, and lit to remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during Word War Two.

The City of York Civic Event took place on 26 January at the York St John Creative Centre. The annual event was hosted by the Lord Mayor and Civic Party.

Additionally, a Clifford’s Tower commemoration is set to take place on 16 March.

The commemoration will remember the 1190 massacre of York’s Jewish population at the site of York Castle at Clifford’s Tower.