Rother residents are being invited to mark Holocaust Memorial Day today by displaying a light in their window at 8pm.

Today (January 27) marks the 76^th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz in Nazi occupied Poland.

In the five years the camp existed, it is estimated that over a million men, women and children, were murdered within its gates. Most of those killed were followers of the Jewish faith, but the Nazis also targeted Poles, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war.

The day remembers the six million Jewish people who were murdered during The Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi Persecution and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.  

The theme for this year’s Memorial Day is ‘Be the Light in the Darkness’, encouraging everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to and the ways individuals and communities have resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’.

It is an affirmation and a call to action for everyone, asking us to consider different kinds of ‘darkness’, for example, identity-based persecution, misinformation, denial of justice; and different ways of ‘being the light’, for example, resistance, acts of solidarity, rescue and illuminating mistruths.

Increasing levels of denial, division and misinformation in today’s world mean we must remain vigilant against hatred and identity-based hostility.

Councillor Brian Drayson. Rother District Council Chair said “Many Councils across the country are marking the day with online acts of remembrance this year. Although RDC is not holding such an event I would ask people who wish to mark and remember this day by displaying a light in their window at 8pm.

“Our neighbours at Hastings Borough Council are holding an online Holocaust Memorial event on Saturday, January 30, for details please go to their website”.

More information about the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and this year’s theme can be found at www.hmd.org.uk   

Published: 27th January 2021