Taking place on Holocaust Memorial Day, Monday, January 27, at the Sunderland Minster, from 6.30pm the event will bring the Wearside community together to pay their respects at a special service of remembrance.
Holocaust Memorial Day is the international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Monday, January 27, marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
Redby Primary Academy and Southmoor Academy school choirs will perform at the event, followed by moving speeches from two guest speakers who have personal connections to the atrocity which happened during the Second World War.
Guest speakers will include Smajo Baso, who will talk about his experience the Bosnia Genocide, and Gerald Stern, who will discuss his fathers escape from Germany.
Members of the community are invited to come along and take part. Entry is free and complimentary refreshments will be on offer.
In the run-up to the memorial event, a special exhibition titled ‘Children under the Nazis’ went on display at The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland on Friday, January 24 and Saturday, January 25.
Made up of a collection of drawings, essays and testimonials collected in the early post- war, it offered an insight into the Holocaust through the eyes of children.
The exhibition was curated by Dr Beate Muller, from Newcastle University, in collaboration with the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation.
Event organiser Anthony Wortman from the Inter Faith Forum, said: “The first hand accounts in the exhibition are incredibly powerful and it is certainly an exhibition that will leave a lasting impact on those who visit.
“We want the public to be made aware of the Holocaust Memorial because it is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia.”
