The Importance of Holocaust Memorial Day

Marian Liebmann reflects on eleven years of working with the Holocaust Memorial Day Steering Group.

I joined the Holocaust Memorial Day Steering Group in the days when the City Council took a lead, but included volunteers to make sure it was a community event. My parents were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, and I have always felt very strongly about prejudice and racism of all sorts. At that point I was still working full-time, but felt it was an important cause.

A committed member of staff from City Hall once chaired the committee, and the Council also researched and printed a booklet of related events. Sadly, over the years the City Council had to withdraw most of their help, for funding reasons. We are very grateful that for the last few years the Council has waived the hire fee for the main hall, but we still have to fundraise for the costs of putting on the event (printing, website, speakers' expenses, BSL signers, refreshments), and the committee is made up entirely of volunteers.

[Link]

The first non-City Council chair of the committee was Valerie Emmott, who ably led us through several years. We met at St Nicholas Tolentino Church under the care of Father Richard McKay, who concludes the event every year. However, the traffic around the church became impossible, so when I became chair (for 2017-2019), we met in each other's houses. During the Covid years we met on Zoom, with two co-chairs miraculously managing the whole process online. This year we were generously granted a free meeting room by Redland Quakers. There was a new committee but no chairperson, so I stepped up for one final year.

Holocaust Memorial Day was instituted as a national UK memorial day in 2001, and is widely recognised around the world. It is linked to 27 January, the day in 1945 that Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated. It commemorates the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews and others were murdered, but also more recent genocides (those recognised by international tribunals) in Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust provides a theme for each year, often reflecting current concerns. Here are some recent ones:

• Don't stand by (2016)
• The power of words (2018)
• Torn from home (2019)
• The fragility of freedom (2024)

We try to follow this in our talks and activities.

Each year we have looked for a keynote speaker with lived experience of the Holocaust in some form, and we have been fortunate to find several extraordinary, wonderful people in their late 80s and 90s who have been generous with their time, even though travel has often been difficult for them. We realise that this won't be possible in the future, and we will need to rely on 'second generation' descendants.

Alongside our keynote speaker, we have a mixture of other speakers. It is a non-political event and we try to include broad participation across all parties, groups and individuals. We are keen to include our local political leaders to introduce and conclude the event. We also welcome young people from local schools who have been on the 'Learning from Auschwitz' programme. We have had speakers and dance performances from Rwanda, though so far we have not had a Cambodian or Darfuri contributor. Prior to Covid, we had workshops where attendees interacted with others, discussing topics such as 'The Ten Steps to Genocide'. More recently we have also welcomed Bristol refugee organisations to hold information stalls.

During Covid, for three years 2020-2023, we provided a presentation online, thanks to the web skills of one of our committee members and another member who made a video of their rich family history. We were glad to be back in City Hall for January 2024, but due to the Israel-Gaza conflict we had to institute security measures for the first time. In spite of this, all went well on the day, and everyone found it a very moving event.

We have already fixed the date for next year - Monday 27 January 2025 from 11-1 - which will be the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. There is a good, enthusiastic committee, but we are still looking for a chairperson for the coming year.

[Link]

I have found my years working on the Holocaust Memorial Day committee very rewarding and sometimes challenging, bringing me into contact with a wide range of people and diverse communities - all working together to eliminate prejudice and hatred, to make Bristol a more tolerant and friendly city.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.