Events have been taking place on and around Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) across Newcastle. HMD is commemorated on 27 January each year. The day is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Allied troops at the end of World War 2. It is a day to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust and the genocides that followed.
Each year Holocaust Memorial Day focuses on a theme that aims to help us learn more about the past, to empathise with others and to work towards a better future. This year the theme is The Fragility of Freedom.
The Fragility of Freedom: Newcastle events
Holocaust Memorial Day events in Newcastle are taking place in January and into February. There is a comprehensive programme involving talks, music, a lecture, exhibitions, a film, a radio broadcast and workshops for schools. The range and scope of the programme provides opportunities for everyone to engage.
HMD Memorial Day Commemorative Event 28th January, Newcastle City Library
Organised by the Representative Council of North East Jewry, this intergenerational event commemorated the Holocaust with reflections on the theme of Fragility of Freedom.
Speakers included the organisation’s President Simon Henig, Rabbi Aaron Lipsey (United Hebrew Congregation), Rabbi Sybil Sheridan Newcastle Reform Synagogue) and Newcastle’s Lord Mayor Cllr Veronica Dunn. Sid, representing students from Northumbria University, shared young people’s perspectives on threats to freedom in an online age and the rise of antisemitism. The keynote speaker was Susie Kaufman who spoke about the experience of her parent’s before, during and after the Holocaust and the lives they made in the North East.
A schools’ choir with 80 children from Gosforth East Middle School, Dame Allan’s, Newcastle School for Boys and Queen Elizabeth High School, sang a moving song on the theme, written by members of the Jewish community.
There was also a photographic exhibition with images from Yad Vashem, ‘Flashes of Memory’, on the first floor of the City Library, which will be exhibited until 8th February.
Making History Today exhibition 29th January-2nd February, Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library
This exhibition is a key part of the HMD 2024 programme, organised by a national charity, the Together Plan. This is about the Holocaust in the German-occupied Soviet Union, with a focus on Belarus. Approximately 2.7 million Jews were killed in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust. This history is little known. This exhibition is a powerful reminder of the importance of working together to promote positive change and safeguard our freedoms. The exhibition is on different times through the week – check timings here.
Schools workshops 29th January-2nd February
The Together Plan will be running 9 school workshops between 29th January and the 2nd February. There will be two 90-minute school workshops each day at 10:00 and 13:30, apart from Wednesday 31st January when there will be one workshop at 10:00. Booking is required, click here to book a school session.
The Forgotten Holocaust – the story of the Roma genocide, 15.30-17.00, 31st January, City Library
This special event is run in partnership with Roma Access Newcastle CIC. Join special guest speakers, a Q&A session and a tour of a pop-up display about the Roma during World War II. Click here to book for this event
The Rescuers, Heroes of the Holocaust Film 16.45-18.30, 1st February, Newcastle City Library
Click here to book for the screening of this award winning film and a post-screening discussion with Lady Esther Gilbert, who will join digitally.
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.