Holocaust Memorial Day 2024: When is it and why it takes place each year
26.01.2024 - 20:15
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
National Holocaust Memorial Day is taking place today, January 27. First held in 2001, Holocaust Memorial Day serves to provide people across the world with an opportunity to learn about the Holocaust and what can be done to challenge prejudice today.
This year’s theme is ‘The Fragility of Freedom’ which encourages people to reflect on the subtle ways in which freedom can be eroded over time. The theme highlights the ways in which perpetrators target individuals, communities, and means of expression, to prevent challenge and dissent.
It serves as a reminder that it cannot be taken for granted. It aims to highlight that there are people today who continue to risk their own freedom to help others, to preserve others’ freedom or to stand up to despotic regimes. As well as commemorating the Holocaust, it is also a day to remember those that have endured and survived other genocides that have taken place around the world.
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This year a service was held in Greater Manchester on Wednesday, January 24 to Mark Holocaust Memorial Day, with faith leaders and representatives from community organisations invited to to take part. The sixth annual service, which was live streamed online, included Noemie Lopian, whose family survived the Holocaust, and Jasmin Dajic, who fled the Bosnian genocide as a teenager.
Pupils from Falinge Park High School, a Beacon school for Holocaust Education, also read extracts from the Diary of Anne Frank. The service included musical performances from Cantor Charles Chait, and a minute’s silence led by Rabbi Dovid Lewis from South Manchester Synagogue.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “Our annual Holocaust Memorial Day