Gibraltar commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The normal commemoration in Commonwealth Park cannot take place again this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but there will be a TV and online broadcast of ‘Learning from Auschwitz’ and people are invited to light a candle and place it in a window at 9pm
Today, Thursday 27 January, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day when people all around the world remember and learn about the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and occupied territories, as well as genocides such as those in Bosnia, Darfur, Cambodia, Myanmar and Rwanda. The theme selected by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust this year is ‘One Day’: a day in the life of survivors where everything changed.
Gibraltar always marks this important day in some way, but this year due to the pandemic the commemoration will take a different form. Normally, government ministers, senior dignitaries and a cross section of the community stand together at Commonwealth Park, united against antisemitism and discrimination. This year, in order to reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus, this event will not take place. However, people are invited to light a candle at 9 o’clock this evening, as a sign of remembrance.
Instead of the event at Commonwealth Park, at 6pm Gibraltar’s local broadcaster GBC will be showing a video recording of a presentation called ‘Learning From Auschwitz’ which was delivered by Mr. Arek Hersh, a Holocaust survivor, and Mr Mike Levy, a Holocaust Education Advisor, on 7 December 2017. The subtitled video can also be accessed from the Ministry of Equality website: www.gibraltar.gov.gi/department-equality or from the YouTube link.
In a statement, Samantha Sacramento, Gibraltar’s Minister for Equality, said: “International Holocaust Memorial Day is so important and we must make a point of highlighting this ‘one day’ to remember the holocausts caused by people towards others, for different reasons. We must remember the many days that changed our history, where peoples’ lives changed because of one group’s hatred towards another group of fellow humans. Hatred due to differences in race, religion, colour or culture. We want to encourage the conversation about the Holocaust so that we do not forget what happened with the purpose of avoiding and preventing any further rise to atrocities.
And the chief minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, said that “Today is a day to remember the Holocaust. Not just the Nazi Holocaust, but also the genocides that we’ve seen after that; in Cambodia, in Rwanda, in Bosnia and in Darfur. Once again this year, because of the pandemic, we are unable to commemorate the day as we have done in the past with a public gathering in Commonwealth Park. Instead, we are asked to do as we did last year, and light a candle and place it by a window at 9 o’clock tonight to signify that there is light in the darkness. The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is One Day. So, as we light our candles, let us hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide. One Day when society will be free from hatred, prejudice and discrimination. We must never forget those who perished in the holocaust, those who have perished in genocides since, those who were murdered for who they were. And we must be the light that stands against prejudice and hatred today to ensure that there is never such darkness again.”
