Event planned to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

A special ceremony will be held in South Tyneside later this week to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
The  Mayor of South Tyneside, Coun Alan Smith, with Mayoress Coun Moira Smith.The  Mayor of South Tyneside, Coun Alan Smith, with Mayoress Coun Moira Smith.
The Mayor of South Tyneside, Coun Alan Smith, with Mayoress Coun Moira Smith.

The Mayor of South Tyneside, Coun Alan Smith, will lead the annual event on Friday, in the council chamber in Jarrow Town Hall at 10.30am.

The ceremony will remember all victims killed in the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and in other more recent acts of genocide.

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The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘How Can Life Go On?’

The Mayor said: “It is important to mark this day and remember these terrible times.

“It is only by remembering the past that we can inform the future and make sure that atrocities of this kind are never repeated.

“Holocaust Memorial Day is also an important time for communities to come together and send out a clear message condemning hatred and racism in all its forms.”

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The event will feature the lighting of six candles to represent the six genocides that have occurred – the Holocaust, Nazi persecution, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Last July a tree was planted by the Mayor to mark the 21st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.

More than 8,372 people lost their lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.

The Mayor, along with other guests, placed the special tree in Jubilee Wood at Church Bank, Jarrow.

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Last June also saw South Tyneside Council unanimously support a motion recognising a Srebrenica Memorial Day.

For more information about Friday’s Holocaust memorial event, or to express an interest in attending, please contact the Civic Office on 424 7311.