Public encouraged to remember the Holocaust at those that died at home this year

People across Bath and North East Somerset are being encouraged to remember the Holocaust and the lives lost by lighting a candle at home on at 8pm January 27.

Holocaust Memorial Day will take place on Wednesday, January 27 and this year marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland during the second world war.

Light the Darkness is the theme for the 2021 commemorations, which are coordinated nationally by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

This year’s district-wide HMD event-at-home is being coordinated by the Bath & North East Somerset Faith Foundation.

Nathan Hartley, director of the Faith Foundation, said: “Every year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp we remember the 6 million Jewish children, women and men murdered by the genocidal Nazi regime.

“This year’s theme, ‘Light the Darkness’ is an affirmation and a call to action for everyone marking HMD.

"This theme asks us to consider different kinds of darkness, for example, identity-based persecution, misinformation, denial of justice; and different ways of being the light - for example, resistance, acts of solidarity, rescue and illuminating mistruths.”

Cllr Sarah Bevan is patron of the Bath & North East Somerset Faith Foundation and the daughter of a Holocaust Survivor.

She said: “The Holocaust was enabled with the collusion of ordinary people, once friends, neighbours and colleagues of the persecuted millions, who failed to speak out when the harassment, exclusion, deportations and pogroms started, many years before the outbreak of World War II.”

People can remember the Holocaust at home on Wednesday January 27, by lighting a candle at 8pm with other households across the UK.

The Faith Foundation is making available resources, posters and information for individuals, community associations and faith groups for Holocaust Memorial Day.

To receive free copies, email info@bathnesfaithfoundation.org.uk.