Northern Ireland hosts Holocaust Memorial Day

Northern Ireland is hosting the fourth UK Holocaust Memorial Day and hundreds of people are expected to attend the commemoration.

In recognition that 2004 marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, the theme will focus on ‘From the Holocaust to Rwanda: lessons learned, lessons still to learn’.

The 60-minute memorial, which will be held at the Waterfront Hall, will include a reading of a poem by Bertolt Brecht by Nobel prize winner, Seamus Heaney, as well as a reading by Holocaust survivor, Gena Turgel, from her book, ‘I Light A Candle’.

The commemoration will reflect on the violence at the time of the Holocaust, persecution of Jews and other groups and the creation of ghettoes.

The choirs of Our Lady and St. Patrick’s College, Knock ,Grosvenor Grammar School and Belfast Synagogue and the West Ocean Quartet will also perform poetry and music at the event.

Other speakers at the commemoration will include former MP and BBC correspondent, Martin Bell and Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks.

In 2000, the government decided that January 27 each year should be designated ‘UK Holocaust Memorial Day’ in order “to ensure that the horrendous crimes against humanity committed during the Holocaust and other acts of genocide were never forgotten”.

The date was chosen because this was the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, in 1945.

A Book of Commitment is also available in each local council office in Northern Ireland. The Belfast book will be available for signing at City Hall until Friday, between 9am and 5pm.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Martin Morgan, has also urged people to show their opposition to racism by taking part at a rally outside the City Hall on Tuesday. Barbara Muldoon from the Anti-Racism Network said that it was an opportunity for people to show that racism would not be tolerated. She said: “We are expecting people to come out in their thousands and show support not only for the people who have been attacked and the people who have been subjected to these racist incidents, but to make a commitment that it is not the minority ethnic community that are not welcome here – it is the sort of bigots that we have seen who have been carrying out these attacks in the last couple of weeks.”

(KMcA)