Terry from the HMD team has been in touch with LBFN – the pack is particularly good this year and here’s the latest on resources:

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) takes place on 27 January each year.  The purpose of HMD is to honour and remember the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and the ongoing atrocities in Darfur.  HMD gives us all a chance to look to our own lives and communities today and gives us an opportunity to celebrate the things which are sometimes used as reasons to separate us.

The theme for HMD 2011 is Untold Stories. Millions of lives have been wasted and whole communities wiped out due to the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.  The victims are not just a statistic; each of these lives were individual. Somebody’s friend.  A mother.  A father.  A child.  A colleague.  A neighbour.  HMD 2011 gives us all the chance to tell some of these stories so they are never forgotten.  As Ibi Ginsburg, a Holocaust survivor, says:

‘We carry on telling these stories because we were eye-witnesses.  The most important thing is to tell people so this can never happen again.’

No type of commemoration or event to mark HMD 2011 is right or wrong or too big or too small, and it need not cost a large amount.  The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust provides free resources and advice for event organisers on their website.  They also supply free Campaign Packs which are an essential starting point for anyone thinking of organising an event for HMD 2011.

You can contact Terry at the HMDT office for further information and advice – call 0845 838 1883 or email enquiries@hmd.org.uk.