Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated on 27 January each year across the world. The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 is For a Better Future. There are a range of activities taking place in Newcastle from 16th to 30th January.
This year, Holocaust Memorial Day marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Allied troops at the end of World War II. It is a time to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust and the genocides that followed, to help us learn more about the past, to empathise with others and to take positive action.
A list of the events taking place in Newcastle is below and there are more details at each of the links and about the whole programme on the City Council’s webpage: Newcastle’s Holocaust Memorial Day programme.
- Numbers and Labels: The Jews of Pardubice – Exhibition (16-30th January at Newcastle City Library – Free)
- Brundibár Arts festival (events are ticketed, booking required)
- Brundibár Arts festival – Opening concert (7pm 18th January at St James Reformed Church)
- Brundibár Arts festival: Music, Migration and Mobility – Exhibition (7pm 23rd January at Gosforth Civic Centre)
- Brundibár Arts festival: Cabaret – What a Life (8pm 23rd January at Gosforth Civic Centre)
- Brundibár Arts festival: In Exile – Closing concert (7.30pm 26th January, Kings Hall Newcastle)
- A Living Tradition: Remembering the Relief of Belsen (5.30pm 23rd January, Newcastle City Library and 3pm 24th January at West End Library – Free)
- Acknowledging the Past for a Better Future – Roma Exhibition (10am-4pm, 24th and 25th January at West Fifteen Business Centre – Free)
- Roma Holocaust – Commemorative event (3pm, 25th January at West Fifteen Business Centre – Free)
- For a Better Future: Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Event (2pm, 26th January, invite only)
- Peace is Personal – Talk (2pm, 29th January, City Library and online livestream – free but booking required)
- Turning to the Sun Performance Event with Skimstone Arts (12 noon and 2.30pm, Newcastle City Library – Free)
- When the Holocaust became the Holocaust: Changing imaginations of genocide in the west (5.15pm, 30th January at Newcastle City Library – Free)
Other ways to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day Online: There are lots of ways to get involved in Holocaust Memorial Day online or using your social media including watching the Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 UK ceremony. By becoming part of the online conversation you can help spread messages of understanding and tolerance. Click here to find out more about taking part in Holocaust Memorial Day online.
Organise an activity: Every year local Holocaust Memorial Day activities take place across the UK. They bring people from all backgrounds together to learn more about the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and the genocides that followed. They also offer an opportunity for people to consider how we can all make our society a better place that is free from hatred, prejudice and discrimination. Holocaust Memorial Day Trust supports individuals and organisations to mark Holocaust Memorial Day by providing free resources, historical information and ideas for how to get involved. Click here to find out more.
Light the Darkness
Every year people from across the UK and around the world put a lit candle in their window to Light the Darkness. Join the national Light the Darkness moment at 8pm on Monday 27 January.
In Newcastle, the Civic Centre will be lit purple as residents from across the city light candles in memory of victims of the Holocaust and other genocides, in tribute to the survivors and to take a stand against the prejudice, discrimination and hatred that still exist today.
The history of Holocaust Memorial Day in Newcastle
Newcastle has been an active and committed contributor to the national Holocaust Memorial Day programme since its inception in 2000. The programme allows our city to commemorate and show our respect for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides and engages residents from all backgrounds in delivering a programme of creative and educational activity which:
- Recognises and examines discrimination and discriminatory behaviour and its consequences
- Encourages appropriate opposition to discrimination
- Creates a better understanding of the history and origins of people and communities that have settled in our city
- Encourages greater tolerance and social inclusion, and
- Contributes to the council’s ambitions around equality.
Newcastle’s programme is nationally recognised and, in 2007, we became the first UK city that was not a national capital to host the National Commemorative Event. In 2015, Newcastle City Council stopped delivering Holocaust Memorial Day directly. Instead they decided to offer funding to independent projects that provided a focal point for remembrance.
The programme has grown and now includes dozens of activities including films, plays, concerts and lectures. This approach has been a great success and has created opportunities for more people to be involved in a way that includes and reflects the diversity, experiences, skills and knowledge of the people and communities who live and work in Newcastle. There are a mix of online and in person activities.
Click here to find out more about Holocaust Memorial Day in Newcastle.