The annual Holocaust Memorial Day will see wreaths laid at the memorials on White Rock that are dedicated to the Jewish women, the Guernsey Eight and the foreign workers at 13.00 tomorrow afternoon (Monday 27th).
A gathering at Town Church will then take place half an hour later, with contributions from students of the Guernsey Music Service and The Guernsey Institute, and reflections on the significance of the day.
The Guernsey Music Centre String Quartet will perform Andante by the 18th-century Venetian composer Albinoni, whose work was rescued from the bombing of Dresden in February and March 1945 by the British and American Air Forces. More of the island’s students will have a chance to help remember the events, with movement choreographed by performing arts students from The Guernsey Institute.
Education, Sport & Culture and the Arts Commission collaborated with the Guernsey Music Centre to mark the day. Tim Wright, Head of the Guernsey Music Service, said: “The Guernsey Music Service is again honoured to be asked to contribute to this occasion.
“Through our collaboration with the TGI Performing Arts Course, we think it very important to contrast the horrors of all prejudice and persecution throughout the world with the beauty of the arts through dance and music. To have young people perform this is particularly poignant as it gives us great hope that our younger generations will form a world free from the horrors of the past.”
Pictured: According to Auschwitz.org, “Historians estimate that around 1.1 million people perished in Auschwitz during the less than five years of its existence”.
Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated in the British Isles on 27 January each year, aiming to bring people together and to learn more about the Holocaust and more recent genocides for a better future. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp complex, and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.
The Very Reverend Tim Barker, who will lead the commemorations once again, said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is a significant day, when we are invited to remember both the destruction of human life by the Nazi regime, and the other genocides of the past eight years, in places such as Darfur in Sudan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia and the Yazidi genocide.
“The gatherings on Holocaust Memorial Day this year take on a special significance, because 2025 marks both the 80th anniversary of the discovery of unspeakable horrors at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the 30th anniversary (in June this year) of the murder of 8,000 Muslim men and boys over 12 years old, in Srebrenica in Bosnia. It is a day when people of all faiths and none can come together to remember and commit ourselves to building a better world.”
Both the gatherings at the White Rock and at the Town Church are open to everyone.