Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Good Relations Team marked Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 with an online exhibition.
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on January 27 each year, coinciding with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
It is a time to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
The theme for 2024 was Fragility of Freedom. In every genocide that has taken place, those who are targeted for persecution have first had their freedoms restricted and removed, before many of them are murdered. This is often a subtle, slow process.
Despite this, in every genocide there are those who risk their own freedom to help others and this is the theme of the current “One Life” film which tells the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and the 669 children that he rescued in the months leading up to World War II.
The online exhibition includes a “Timeline of Nazi Germany” which gives a year-by-year account of how freedoms were gradually restricted and removed from the Jewish people from 1933 onwards, long before the start of the second world war. It is a sobering reminder of where the mistreatment of whole groups of people can ultimately take us. View the online exhibition here.
A booklet written by the current Mayor is also available to read as part of the exhibition. Councillor Steven Callaghan was inspired to write “Kanada” in response to his visit to Auschwitz in 2013.
Find out more about Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.