Standing together for Holocaust Memorial Day

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday 27 January is ‘Stand Together’.

It’s about promoting how individuals can stand together within their communities to speak out against oppression and challenge those seeking to fracture societies by marginalising certain groups.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) in 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It also marks the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day is the international day of remembrance for the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

HMD is for everyone. Each year across the UK, thousands of people come together to learn more about the past and take action to create a safer future. 

The council is supporting a Holocaust Memorial Day event on Monday evening run by the Brighton & Hove Jewish Community's Holocaust Education Project with the Rwandan Youth Information Community Organisation.

Speakers include Bryan Huberman, the son of the late Alfred Huberman, a Brighton-based tailor and one of a group of 732 orphaned child survivors of Nazi concentration camps who came to the UK in 1945, and Vivenie Mugunga, one of the original founders of rYico, a UK-based charity that supports vulnerable young people in Rwanda through Centre Marembo. 

Standing together

Councillor Amanda Grimshaw, the council’s lead member for equalities will be opening the event, and said: 

“On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, alongside all those murdered in the genocides since.

“In a time of increasing division in communities across the UK and the world, I’m proud that Brighton & Hove is a city known for its free thinking, open and inclusive nature. We do not accept hate here in any form.

“In my role, I will be actively working to build bridges where there is division. I fully support the call for us to stand together with others in our communities to stop division and the spread of identity-based hostility in our society.”

For more information about Holocaust Memorial Day, visit the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website.