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Holocaust Memorial Day 2021

Holocaust Centre Candle Lighting with credit

Please note that this event has already occured.

Key information

Date: Monday 25 January 2021

Time: 11:00am to 12:00pm

Cost: Free

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony will this year take place online.

This event has been pre-recorded to ensure the safety of all contributors and you can watch the livestream on this page at 11:00am on Monday 25 January 2021.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has chosen this year’s theme as ‘Be the light in the darkness’. It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide. We can all stand in solidarity. We can choose to be the light in the darkness in a variety of ways and places – at home, in public and online.

City Hall has worked closely with the Holocaust Educational Trust and The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to create a ceremony that will commemorate victims of the Holocaust and provide time for reflection for those affected by more recent genocides.

Programme

Address Sadiq Khan, Mayor of Londonith
Holocaust Survivor Testimony Renee Salt BEM, was born in Zduńska Wola, Poland in 1929 and has been sharing her testimony for over twenty years.

Following the German invasion in September 1939 Renee and seven family members were forced to live in one room in the newly created ghetto in Zduńska Wola. During a raid her little sister was picked up and never seen again. In 1942 Renee, aged 13, and her parents were transport to the Łódź Ghetto where conditions were appalling. In 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and a year later Renee and her mother were moved to Bergen-Belsen described by her as a “living hell”. On 15th April 1945 Renee and her mother were liberated from Bergen-Belsen, sadly Renee’s mother died 12 days after the liberation. Renee was eventually found by her aunt and they moved across Europe to Paris.
Reflections from Holocaust Educational Trust Ambassadors Maddy L, Tiffin Girls’ School

Sofia G, Tiffin Girls’ School
Genocide Survivor Testimony Abdul Musa Adam, was born in Darfur and aged 7 escaped the warfare in Western Sudan that claimed the lives of most of his family. He crossed the border into Chad where he spent 3 years before crossing into Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya where he suffered persecution and torture for refusing to join the Libyan Children’s Army. A doctor working in the prison where he was held helped him escape to France and from there, hidden under a lorry, Abdul made the long journey to the UK.
Statement of commitment from Holocaust Educational Trust Ambassadors Ilana Gunson

Hadia Yaqubi

Dilara Saglam

Daniel Caves - San José

Benjamin Thomas

Liam Fox

Donal Costello
El Male Rachamim memorial prayer.



Lighting of the memorial candle and minute’s silence		 Rabbi Barry Marcus MBE, Emeritus Rabbi of The Central synagogue
Closing remarks Navin Shah, Chair of the London Assembly and Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow

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