This year, the ceremony asks ‘How Can Life Go On?’, and explores the aftermath of the Holocaust and of subsequent genocides, which continue to raise challenging questions for individuals, communities and nations.
Speakers at the Corn Exchange ceremony will include Dagmar Lieblova – a survivor of the Nazi-run Terezin concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia in World War II – and Lord Alf Dubs, who was one of 669 child refugees rescued from the Nazis by the Kindertransport and who continues to campaign for the rights of refugees including child refugees.
The programme will also feature survivor testimonies, songs, readings, music and dance, including a newly commissioned piece developed by students from Hills Road Sixth Form College honouring the memory of Elie Wiesel, the academic, author and survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, who died last year.
Other events taking place in Cambridge around Holocaust Memorial Day include:
- ‘We Must Save the Children’ – exhibition, panel discussion, music recital and seminar at Newnham College, Sidgwick Avenue, Mon 23-Fri 27 January
- ‘The Roma Sinti people and the Holocaust’ – Lecture by Professor Rainer Schulze at Anglia Ruskin University, East Road Campus, Tues 24 January, 7.30pm.
Cllr Lewis Herbert, Leader of Cambridge City Council, said: “We’re once again proud to support Holocaust Memorial Day with Cambridge’s annual ceremony at the Corn Exchange, which is always a moving and uplifting occasion despite the inhuman cruelty being remembered.”
“This year’s theme ‘How Can Life Go On?’ reminds us that people are still feeling the after-effects of the Holocaust and genocides around the world. Occasions like this are also a reminder that Cambridge has long been a place of refuge for people fleeing conflict and persecution elsewhere in the world. Sadly death and suffering still continues to force people from their homes, making our role as a city opposed to oppression and a friend to refugees as important now as it ever has been.”
More information can be found at: www.cambridge.gov.uk/holocaust-memorial-day
Please note: The civic ceremony at the Corn Exchange for Holocaust Memorial Day starts at 5pm on Sunday 22 January and is free to attend. Those attending are requested to arrive early for a prompt 5pm start.
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