Holocaust Memorial Day
On Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember ALL who suffered persecution or lost their lives under the Nazis – especially the six million Jewish men, women and children, and further millions targeted by that regime for racial, religious, social or political reasons.
In our own Diocese, two of our parishes are under the patronage of Saints who fell victim to the Holocaust: St Maximilan Kolbe and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Some of the fiercest opposition to the Nazis came from German, Austrian and Polish Catholic clergy and laity who strongly declared Catholicism and Nazism to be utterly incompatible (read more in an online article accessible via this link).
This year, the Lord Mayor of Leeds will open the 2026 Civic Remembrance Event for Holocaust Memorial Day. This will include a keynote speech by Tracy Craggs from Holocaust Centre North. Tracy has been working with the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association for 18 years, latterly as Head of Collections for its Holocaust Centre North based at the University of Huddersfield, where she is responsible for working with survivors and their families in securing their wonderful collections for the future. She is also fortunate to have a dual role, looking after the needs of survivors based in Yorkshire.
There will be a multimedia (photography, video, sound, and spoken word) performance of Sight by artist Laura Fisher, focusing on experiences by Holocaust survivor Iby Knill. The artist retraced Iby’s journey across the no man’s land between Czechoslovakia and Hungary in February 1942. This attempt to retrace Iby’s path of survival echoes a similar journey Iby’s son Chris Knill made to Auschwitz-Birkenau to understand the places that witnessed pivotal parts of his mother’s life.
Music will be performed by the United Hebrew Congregation choir with Rabbi Alby Chait MBE. The event will include a reading of the seven statements of commitments with candles lit by representatives of the different groups persecuted in the Holocaust, by Nazi persecution and in the subsequent genocides which followed. A memorial prayer will be sung by Rabbi Anthony Gilbert to close the event.
Free Tickets can be booked via the link below:
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