Bridging generations through remembrance and ensuring the lessons of the past are carried forward — will be the focus of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in Leeds.
The city’s civic event, hosted by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Dan Cohen, will take place at City Varieties Music Hall at 2pm on Sunday, 25 January. The Lord Mayor has invited people from across Leeds to come together to remember the victims of genocide and to reflect on the importance of education and understanding in challenging prejudice and hatred.
Holocaust Memorial Day is part of the wider International Day of Remembrance. It commemorates the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust, as well as people from other minority groups who died under Nazi persecution. It also honours those killed in later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
This year’s keynote speaker is Dr Tracy Craggs, Head of Collections at Holocaust Centre North, based at the University of Huddersfield. Dr Craggs has worked with the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association for 18 years and, in her role at the centre, collaborates with survivors and their families to preserve valued collections for future generations. She also supports survivors living across Yorkshire.
The programme will include Sight, a multimedia performance by artist Laura Fisher that combines photography, video, sound and spoken word to explore the experiences of Holocaust survivor Iby Knill. Fisher retraced Iby’s journey across the no man’s land between Czechoslovakia and Hungary in February 1942. The act of following her route to safety mirrors a similar journey taken by Iby’s son, Chris Knill, who travelled to Auschwitz-Birkenau to better understand the places that shaped key moments in his mother’s life. Music will be provided by the United Hebrew Congregation choir, joined by Rabbi Alby Chait MBE.
The event will conclude with a reading of the seven statements of commitment, accompanied by the lighting of candles by representatives of the groups persecuted during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the genocides that followed. A memorial prayer, sung by the Lord Mayor’s Chaplain, Rabbi Anthony Gilbert, will bring proceedings to a close.
The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Dan Cohen said:
“The lessons of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides should never be forgotten, and that is why Holocaust Memorial Day plays such an important role. These lessons are especially important in a world that is becoming increasingly polarised by division and hate.
“As we listen to the experiences of survivors of genocide and understand the horrors perpetrated by one human on another, we learn why the virtues of peace and tolerance are so important and why we need to bridge the generations to carry those lessons forward.
“Through acts of remembrance and by educating ourselves on the consequences of hate, we learn to challenge intolerance in all its forms and to accept and celebrate our differences.”
Leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor James Lewis said:
“As a multicultural global city, Holocaust Memorial Day is a reminder to us all of the consequences of hate, racism, and xenophobia.
“Only by standing shoulder to shoulder as one community, and through accepting and celebrating each other’s differences, can we learn and grow to overcome hate of all kinds.
“Holocaust Memorial Day also plays an important role in reaffirming our commitment to stopping the inhumanity of genocide in the future and building bonds of trust between our many and varied communities here in Leeds.”
Alongside the civic commemoration, two further events will be held in Leeds to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. At the Reginald Centre in Chapel Allerton on Thursday, 29 January at 7pm, Roxanne de Bastion — author of The Piano Player of Budapest, will give a talk about her book, which tells the true story of young pianist Stephen de Bastion, his descent into the horrors of the Holocaust and his extraordinary escape.
Tickets for this one-off event are available on a pay-as-you-feel basis and can be booked in advance online at www.ticketsource.co.uk
A special Holocaust Memorial Day screening of the Oscar-nominated film ‘A Real Pain’ will also take place at Seven Artspace in Chapel Allerton on 22 January at 7.30pm. The comedy-drama follows two mismatched cousins, David and Benji, as they travel through Poland to honour their grandmother — only for the trip to become increasingly fraught as old tensions resurface while they explore their family history.
Tickets for the film are available on a pay-as-you-can basis on the door, and can be booked in advance via Seven Arts’ website at www.sevenleeds.co.uk
A limited number of tickets for the Holocaust Memorial Day event are still available and can be reserved free of charge online at www.leedsheritagetheatres.com
