Join us for an evening of commemoration for Holocaust Memorial Day.
Join us on Tuesday 23rd January to remember the six million Jewish people killed during the Holocaust, as well as others who were persecuted by the Nazis and the victims of subsequent genocides. We will be joined by Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as representatives of other communities who have suffered persecution and discrimination,
We will be joined by refugees and artists from 6 million+ will dramatise a poem on the HMD theme of the Fragility of Freedom, written collectively by participants from Ukraine, Sudan, Kurdish Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and those who have Jewish heritage.
Alongside presentations from local schools and The University of Huddersfield’s Jewish society we will be joined by Dieudonne Manirakiza, who will give a talk entitled ‘Reconciliation is better than being right’. Dieudonne Manirakiza is from Burundi and arrived in the UK in 2002 seeking sanctuary. Following the genocide in Rwanda, Dieudonne joined an organisation called CFOR who met with victims and perpetrators to encourage reconciliation. They talked together to acknowledge violent actions, take accountability, understand contexts and discover new pathways for community relationships and prevent future conflict. The technique shared by psychologists in CFOR is known as Processwork and it’s an individual process as well as a group one. Dieudonne and his colleagues believe that freedom is fragile unless we can face our own prejudices and fears before we reach out to others, locally and globally.
Candles of remembrance will also be lit by Holocaust survivors Trude Silman, Martin Kapel and Leisel Carter.
We hope that you will be able to join us. Admittance is free, although donations are welcome. Sign-up beforehand is essential.