Community invited light a candle to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

THE community is invited to light a candle at their window in place of a joint vigil to mark this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

January 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 and remembers the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and the millions killed under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Traditionally Saddleworth Peace Group marks the event with a silent vigil in Uppermill Square but this year that cannot take place due to the Covid pandemic and restrictions.

But the group’s Holocaust Memorial Day banner will be displayed in the Square outside Uppermill Methodist Church throughout the day as a reminder to all.

They are suggesting people visit, in a Covid-19 safe manner, and photograph themselves by the banner. Photos can be posted on their Facebook page or emailed to saddleworthpg@yahoo.co.uk so the group can upload them.

The group is also inviting people to join in with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s worldwide initiative of lighting a candle in their window at 8pm that evening.

This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day theme is ‘be the light in the darkness’. It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths that humanity can sink to, but also the ways in which individuals and communities can resist that darkness to be the light.

Saddleworth Peace Group is asking people to take a photo of their candle-lit window and post it on the group’s Facebook page using the hashtags #HolocaustMemorialDay #LightTheDarkness or emailed to the group to upload.

People can also print off and display a poster alongside the candle if they wish.

Meanwhile, this year the Greater Manchester Combined Authority is holding a Holocaust Memorial Day service which you can watch live at 10am on Wednesday, January 27.

Or register (for free) to watch the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s first fully digital ceremony at 7pm.