Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony commemorates victims

To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, the Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Cllr Jonathan Evison hosted a ceremony at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe.

This year is the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which is a significant milestone and is made particularly poignant by the dwindling number of survivors who are able to share their testimony. It also marks the 25^th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia.

The Mayor was joined by school pupils and guests from across North Lincolnshire who joined him in laying a stone in memory of the millions of people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

St Barnabas Church of England Primary School Choir officially opened and closed the ceremony, and other local school children read poems.

Father David Rowett, the Mayor’s Chaplain; Abid Khan, Chairman of the Multi-Faith Partnership; the Young Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Levi Bonnett; and children from schools in North Lincolnshire including Althorpe and Keadby Primary School; Barton St Peter’s Church of England Primary School; Berkeley Primary School; Bowmandale Primary School; and St Hugh’s Communication and Interaction Specialist College.

Holocaust Memorial Day brings together people from different faiths and backgrounds to remember the victims of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘Stand Together’. It explores how genocidal regimes throughout history have deliberately fractured societies by marginalising certain groups, and how these tactics can be challenged by individuals standing together with their neighbours, and speaking out against oppression.

The Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Cllr Jonathan Evison, said:

“This inter-generational and inter-faith ceremony brings together our community in remembering the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

“It is important that we never forget the atrocities of the past.”