For a second year, due to Covid, Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) Service 2022 was nationally commemorated online last week, in which Holocaust survivors shared powerful stories of loss, grief, and resilience.
At the end of the online commemoration, as part of the 'Light the darkness' initiative, many households across the UK lit candles and safely put them in their windows to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust alongside the millions others killed, under Nazi persecution and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. It was also about our collective commitment to stand against any form of prejudice and hatred and to stand in solidarity with people today who face persecution because of who they are and their religious beliefs.
The theme for this year was “One Day”.
Talking about the One Day when everything changed, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for better, Iby Knill, Holocaust survivor said, “You didn’t think about yesterday, and tomorrow may not happen, it was only today that you had to cope with and you got through it as best you could.”
Gerald Fox, Luton’s HMD Convener said, “Working towards unity and increasing interfaith understanding feels even more urgent, and vitally important, in light of the deeply troubling anti-Semitic attack earlier this month in Colleyville, Texas.”
A special prayer by CCJ (Council for Christians and Jews) said – Help us to remember and recognise the sanctity of each human life. ‘One day’ we pray that genocide and hatred will be no more, and that love will triumph over evil.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Archbishop Justin Welby lighting a candle with Darfur genocide survivor Jeddah Zakaria as part of the 'Light the darkness' initiative
Published in Luton News on 2nd Februrary 2022