Published: Thursday, 11th January 2024
Holocaust Memorial Day will be marked in King’s Lynn this year with a civic service at the Town Hall ahead of a wreath-laying in the town’s Tower Gardens.
A variety of readers and groups will be attending the interfaith service on Sunday, January 21 at noon. The Borough Mayor, Cllr Margaret Wilkinson will be joined by readers representing a host of organisations to mark Holocaust Memorial Day which is on January 27.
Pupils from both St Martha’s and Greyfriars schools in King’s Lynn will be taking part in the service, along with borough council deputy leader Cllr James Moriarty, members of the local police cadets, soroptimists and representatives of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths.
This year’s theme is Fragility of Freedom - which can be taken for granted and can so quickly be taken away, as illustrated in the Holocaust when Jews were barred from schools, universities and some professions. In the Nuremburg Laws of 1935, they were forced to wear yellow stars and even restricted as to who they married before being isolated in ghettos and used as labour for the Nazis.
“Freedom is something post-war generations in this country have experienced and enjoyed. Many have lived and died protecting it, so we may live, work and worship freely. But freedom is hard-won and we must all work together to ensure we enable future generations to have the same benefits we have enjoyed,” said a spokesperson for the West Norfolk Jewish community.
January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp, and West Norfolk holds its ceremony on the Sunday before the date to enable as many people as possible to take part. A wreath will also be laid immediately after the service at the tree planted for the first national Holocaust Memorial Day in 2001 in the Tower Gardens.
Cllr Margaret Wilkinson, Mayor of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, said: “On Holocaust Memorial Day, we bring our communities together to remember the millions of victims of genocide across the world.
“We have a long history of marking HMD in west Norfolk and I’m proud to continue to do so. We must always remember and learn from the Holocaust, and later genocides, to ensure that such things do not happen again.”
The day is also a time to reflect and remember those who have been murdered in subsequent genocides including those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi people in Rwanda which saw a million murdered in just 100 days.
Each year thousands of activities take place around the UK to mark the date and more information about Holocaust Memorial Day can be found at the website www.hmd.org.uk