Monday is Holocaust Memorial Day

This coming Monday, 27th January 2020 will be the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auchwitz and will be commemorated as Holocaust Memorial Day.


The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend next Monday's national Holocaust Memorial Day commemorative ceremony in Westminster. The Duke will give a reading and the couple will meet Holocaust survivors and survivors of subsequent genocides.

Holocaust memorial Day Trust chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman explained that

"Holocaust Memorial Day is particularly significant this year as we mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau,"

She added that

"The UK ceremony is the national focal point for more than 10,000 Holocaust Memorial Day activities which are taking place in community settings from schools to libraries, and from councils to prisons. At every event to mark the day, people know more about the past, develop empathy for others, and commit to taking action to create a better future."

The theme for HMD 2020 is Stand Together.

Throughout history, murderous regimes have deliberately divided and fractured societies by marginalising particular groups of human being as scapegoats and used them to divert blame and hostility.

For example, in the years leading up to the Holocaust, Nazi policies and propaganda deliberately encouraged divisions within German society – urging ‘Aryan’ Germans to keep themselves separate from their Jewish neighbours. Nazi persecution of both Jews and other groups in society leading up to mass murder and genocide was enabled by dividing people from one another.
Today, as we see increasing division in communities across the UK and the world. we need now more than ever to stand together with others in our communities and stop the spread of identity-based hostility in our society.

You can read more about how to take part in Holocaust Memorial day here.

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