Holocaust Memorial Day commemorated in Rochdale

Holocaust Memorial Day was this year commemorated in Rochdale with a short film to remember the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides, past and present.

The day is marked on January 27 each year and Rochdale Borough holds an annual commemoration, hosted in a different one of the four townships in rotation.

However, 2021 is different for obvious reasons - a public event not being possible due to the pandemic and lockdown.

However, the Borough of Rochdale Multi-Faith Partnership, supported by Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership, has produced a digital film to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides past and present.

It also aims to raise awareness that the threat and potential for genocide taking place somewhere in the world is an ever-present reality.

January 27 is chosen for HMD because it is the anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest and one of many concentration and death camps set up by the Nazis in Germany and across Europe during World War Two  

The Multi-Faith Partnership has noted that since its involvement in organising the event since 2013, the list of places where acts of suppression and violence aimed at specific groups of people and their culture has grown.

Learning from the past about how a civilised society might find itself on an accelerating path, towards the attempted annihilation of targeted groups of people - by not addressing racism, xenophobia and identity-based hatred in its midst, is as relevant today as it was in the early part of the Twentieth Century.  

The film, which takes its title from this year’s HMD theme 'Be the light in the darkness' has contributions from senior members of Rochdale Council including the Mayor of Rochdale Borough, Councillor Billy Sheerin, Tony Lloyd MP,  Adam Rennie, Member of Youth Parliament for Rochdale, Rabbi Warren Elf and pther members of the community.  

The film brings our attention to the Holocaust and other genocides, including Holodomor (death by forced starvation) in Ukraine, genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.  

It also acknowledges the plight of the Rohingya people who recently had to flee violence and brutality in Myanmar and also brings attention to the current reported human rights issues faced by Uighur and Kazakh Muslims in Xinjiang province.

The twenty nine minute film can be viewed on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdfMpgMUWdA&feature=youtu.be