More than seven decades on from the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, people across Notttinghamshire paid their respects in honour of Holocaust Memorial Day.
It is estimated more than a million people, mainly Jewish, were killed at that camp alone during its five years in operation.
The Nottinghamshire-based National Holocaust Centre and Nottingham Trent University held a joint lunchtime event on Friday, with prayers, songs and presentations at the Nottingham Conference Centre.
Angela Brown, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at Nottingham Trent University and Chief Executive of the National Holocaust Centre, Phil Lyons, hosted the event.
Mr Lyons said: “The message we want to send today is that we have to have hope for the future, remembering is OK, it has to happen but you have to remember for a purpose and that purpose is that we take action today.
“There is a saying that goes, ‘those who have failed to learn the lessons of history are doomed to make the same mistakes’.”
This is the first joint commemoration between the two bodies and the university’s postgraduate students are currently working with the National Holocaust Centre on a digital exhibition entitled Legacies of the Holocaust, a free to use teaching and learning resource for secondary schools.
At the National Holocaust Centre a 3D exhibition has also been launched under the name the Forever Project to tell the stories of survivors through interactive holograms.
Director Malcolm Green, Director of Photography Tom Baker.
Ten different survivors were interviewed for the exhibition. all answering more than 1,000 questions each.
Visitors can ask the holograms of the survivors questions and through a voice recognition software the holograms then answer.
Nottingham City Council will also be holding a ceremony of commemoration on Sunday at the Council House.
The event will be held from 2.30pm until 4pm with an introduction from the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Councillor Mohammed Saghir.
Cllr Saghir said: “This event is an opportunity for our local community to come together to remember victims of the Holocaust and those whose lives have been affected by discrimination.
“This event helps us to think about the impact of discrimination and how it can still damage society, and consider what we can do to work to protect against exclusion.
“The aim of National Holocaust Day is to remember all victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi persecution, to reflect on more recent atrocities and to remind ourselves about the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of discrimination.”
Mansfield District Council also held a ceremony today at the Civic Centre, with Director of Governance, Jacqueline Collins, lighting a candle and holding a minute’s silence to remember those who died or suffered during the Holocaust.
A display has been put up until the end of January where visitors can learn more about those who suffered through survivor’s stories.
