To mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, North Tyneside Council is holding special commemorative events all this week.
North Tyneside’s Holocaust Memorial Day organising committee has worked with local schools to raise awareness of the Holocaust and this year, more schoolchildren than ever will take part in the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.
To mark the occasion St Mary’s Lighthouse, in Whitley Bay, will be illuminated purple, the colour used by the national Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, on Monday 27 January.
And on Friday 31 January, the official event will be held at the council’s Quadrant offices at Cobalt Business Park.
The event, which will be hosted by North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn CBE, will also be attended by veterans, religious leaders, councillors and officers, as well as local schools and representatives from many local organisations.
Speakers include Rabbi Aaron Lipsey, presentations from 15 North Tyneside schools and a key note speech from a member of the Jewish community relaying personal family experience of the Holocaust.
Material from Dr Muller of Newcastle University will also be on display in the reception area at Quadrant East for a week from Monday 27 January. The display entitled “Children under the Nazi’s” looks at the impact upon children’s lives under a Nazi regime and also looks at the lives of children of various nationalities and faiths.
Memorial candles will be lit, and visitors to Quadrant will also have the opportunity to write in the Holocaust commemorative book. Guests will then be invited to spend time in the council’s Holocaust Memorial Garden - the only one of its kind in the North.
Please note that while the memorial service at Quadrant is a public event, spaces are restricted. So if you would like to attend, call (0191) 643 5347 to make sure you are on the register of attendees. However, the memorial plaque is available to view in the Quadrant reception area and the garden nearby is freely accessible at all times.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Every year on 27 January the world marks Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD), which has been held in the UK since 2001.
27 January was chosen as the date for HMD because it was on this date in 1945 that the largest Nazi killing camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated.
HMD is about remembering the victims and those whose lives have been changed beyond recognition as a result of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the ongoing atrocities today in Darfur.
Further information is available at www.hmd.org.uk.