“it’s important to understand how prejudice grows and when left un-challenged can become genocide.”
Prayers will be offered and candles lit in all our cathedrals to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.
“With events around the world and the rise of right-wing politics in Europe, it’s important to understand how prejudice grows and when left un-challenged can become genocide. We should all feel the call to challenge discrimination.”
Revd Canon Matthew Vernon, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, on Holocaust Memorial Day.
St Edmundsbury and Durham cathedrals will join other iconic landmark buildings in the UK and light up purple on Monday evening.
Truro Cathedral will host a community day with stalls from groups and organisations that represent those that have faced persecution and prejudice and there will be a candle-lighting ceremony at noon when community groups and civic leaders will light candles, give speeches, talks and poems, and music is provided by Truro School.
There will be special prayers offered throughout the day at Durham Cathedral, some in person and live-streamed.
Live-streams are on Durham Cathedral’s Youtube Channel here.
St Edmundsbury Cathedral will hold a special service in the Peace Garden in the Abbey Gardens on Monday morning with local schools who will contribute readings and music.
As well as the special service, the Cathedral will be open throughout the day for reflection and contemplation.
Revd Canon Matthew Vernon said:
“With events around the world and the rise of right-wing politics in Europe, it’s important to understand how prejudice grows and when left un-challenged can become genocide. We should all feel the call to challenge discrimination.”
Later in the day, the Cathedral will hold a service of Music and Meditation before lighting up the cathedral tower purple as part of the national Light in the Darkness initiative.
Norwich Cathedral is celebrating the life and art of Holocaust survivor Naomi Blake, who was born in 1924 in Czechoslovakia.
One of Naomi’s works, Mother and Child, stands in the Cathedral Close, and next month her daughter, Anita Peleg, will visit the Cathedral to share her mother’s story.
In 1942 Naomi’s immediate family included her parents, nine siblings, six spouses and ten young nieces and nephews. By 1945 only eight members remained; the rest had been murdered in concentration camps.
In her talk, Anita will relate how her mother survived Auschwitz and Brahnau concentration camps and highlight how Naomi’s sculptures aim to help keep alive the legacy of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and to promote Naomi’s vision for uniting faiths and building understanding between religions. And today, more than 50 of Naomi’s works stand in places of worship and public spaces around the UK and overseas.
Anita said:
“I am really pleased to share my mother’s story with the Norwich community.
“She felt very honoured to have a sculpture commissioned for the cathedral. She wanted me to tell her story so that together through her sculpture and through my words we can remember and learn from the past to promote tolerance and understanding for a better future.”
The Dean of Norwich, the Very Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, said:
“Naomi Blake’s life and her message of hope and reconciliation is as vital now as it has ever been. As we remember the horrors of the Holocaust, her story inspires us to work for compassion, justice and the good of all today.”
Free talk: Glimmer of Hope: Sunday 9 February 2pm. Entry is free and there is no need to book in advance.
For the latest information click here.
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The theme for this year’s HMD is ‘For a Better Future’ – creating opportunities for people to come together, learn both from and about the past, and take actions to make a better future for all.
