Holocaust Memorial Day

Learning from genocide for a better future.

College community reflects on Holocaust Memorial Day 2024

The College chapel was lit up in purple and 6 candles were lit to remember the 6 million jews who died. A white petals were dropped against the purple light signified how fragile our world is and the importance of remembering those who have lost their lives in the name of freedom.

Every year on 27 January, the victims and the families of the Holocaust are remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Six million Jewish people were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War, along with millions from other persecuted groups. Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers people killed in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

In 2024, the theme of the day is “Fragility of Freedom”.

Prayer
God, source of all freedom,
on this Holocaust Memorial Day we pray to you.
We remember the freedoms stolen from millions of Jewish, Sinti, black, gay, disabled people and other groups despised by the Nazis in the lead up to and during the Second World War.
We remember the lives lost in that War and in genocides since,
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
We remember that today, in the UK and around the world, millions of people face prejudice, discrimination and hostility simply because of their identity.
God, source of all freedom,
help us to find courage to challenge attitudes of hate and intolerance,
help us to work for the protection of fragile freedoms that we often take for granted.
help us to see in others your image and to love our neighbours, that all might live in peace.
In the name of Christ.
Amen

“That is when the trouble started for the Jews. Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees.”

Anne Frank, diary entry, Saturday 20 June 1942 – reflecting back on May 1940 when the Germans arrived in the Netherlands