People across Greater Manchester will stand alongside our area’s Jewish community to remember victims of genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Friday, January 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp - and a poignant day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the holocaust, alongside millions of people from other groups persecuted by the Nazis. But Holocaust Memorial Day is also a time to commemorate people killed in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
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The UK played a leading role in establishing it as an international day of commemoration in 2000, when 46 governments signed the Stockholm Declaration. In May 2005, Holocaust Memorial Day trust was registered as a charity and to date it has overseen massive growth of local commemoration activities.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, just west of Krakow in Poland was liberated by the Soviets in 1945. It is estimated that some 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau alone during the Second World War. The real number will likely never be known as it is only possible to count the recorded deaths that occurred but many more will have taken place.
You can join in remembering the six million Jews who were murdered in WWII - as well as other victims of persecution from throughout history and around the world - by lighting a candle in their honour. Light a candle for the victims of genocide this Holocaust Memorial Day at the Remembering the Six Million website today.
