Holocaust Memorial Day

This year, Holocaust Memorial Day in Norwich will be held online.

Holocaust Memorial Day, which falls on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, is on Wednesday 27th January.  The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “Be the light in the darkness.”

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, our annual service held in St. Peter Mancroft cannot happen this year.  Instead, Norwich City Council will upload a pre-recorded tribute to YouTube at exactly 2pm on 27th January, the time that our service would have happened.

The tribute will consist of contributions from Bishop Graham of Norwich Cathedral, from Rev. Fiona Howarth of St. Peter Mancroft, from Sheriff Marian Prinsley and from myself.  More importantly, the tribute will include deeply moving testimony from survivors of the Shoah, the Cambodian genocide and of the recent Rohingya persecution and a poetry reading by the great actor Nina Sosanya.

We had hoped for some Hebrew songs from the choir of Notre Dame High School, Norwich, but, sadly, repeated Covid school closures made that impossible in the end – next year!  But we do hope to show some art from local schools and there will be beautiful (socially distanced!) singing from the St. Peter Mancroft choir.

When Norwich City Council gives us the link to the recording we will share it with members and friends by email.