'History must not repeat itself': Holocaust Memorial Day to be marked across Northern Ireland
NOTE: The book launch Charlie Warmington events in Belfast and Lisburn today, Tuesday January 27, have been postponed:
A series of gatherings are to be held across Northern Ireland to remember the Holocaust tomorrow (Tuesday).
One event organiser told the News Letter the annual memorial day signals that “we don’t want history to repeat itself”, while a Belfast Jew said the importance of the day is underlined by “events going on around the world”.
Among the events is the launch of a book about the family of late News Letter contributor Charlie Warmington, and their experience of Nazism in Austria (his mother and uncle escaped in 1939, finding refuge in Northern Ireland).
The book, by Mark Scott, is titled ‘Transport Number 4 – Vienna 1941’ and it is being launched via two talks from the author: one at the Public Records Office Northern Ireland on Titanic Boulevard, Belfast at 1pm, and the other at the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum at Market Square at 7pm.
There is also the launch of a free public exhibition titled ‘Discrimination to Genocide’ in Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre in Co Londonderry (lasting until March 21), while private talks are set to take place in Bangor City Hall and the Killyhevlin Hotel in Co Fermanagh, and the Civic Headquarters in Coleraine and Belfast City Hall are to be lit up in purple overnight.
Michael Black, deputy chairman of the group called The Belfast Jewish Community, said that for some the day will be marked simply with the lighting of a candle in their homes.
He said: “I think we only have to look at the events going on around the world to say that the Holocaust and various other atrocities can't be forgotten.
“They have to remind us of what man can do to man, that the pledge of 'never again' has some meaning.”
He said they also remember the likes of Srebrenica, Darfur, “and other genocides”, adding: “The words 'genocide' and 'Holocaust' are thrown around like confetti today, and words have meanings.”
Jeremy Adams, the Northern Irish support worker for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said: “It's important that we remember the loss of life. We don't want history to repeat itself again.
“People were murdered because of who they were, and it's important that we continue to mark these horrific things that happened all over Europe.”
Members of the Jewish community were involved in an event at Belfast City Hall last Tuesday involving a cross-party delegation of Stormont ministers, and the following day a Holocaust survivor came to speak to about 150 secondary school children at the synagogue in north Belfast.