Braid commemoration an ‘opportunity to create a better understanding of the Holocaust’

The event at The Braid, Ballymena, included Jo Zebedee, a local author and owner of ‘The Secret Bookshelf’ in Carrickfergus, reading W H Auden’s ‘Refugee Blues’.

First published in 1939 - on the eve of World War II - the poem reflects on the plight of Jewish refugees who were forced to flee Nazi Germany.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated on 27 January each year - on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

It is an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution of other groups and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The Mid and East Antrim Borough Council programme was one of thousands that marked Holocaust Memorial Day. Events took place across the UK in schools, places of work, prisons, churches and many more settings.

The theme for this year was ‘Ordinary People’, highlighting the ordinary people who let genocide happen, the ordinary people who actively perpetrated genocide, and the ordinary people who were persecuted, council explained.

Reflecting on this year’s commemorations, the Deputy Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor Beth Adger MBE, said; “Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity to create a better understanding of the Holocaust and other genocides - particularly among young people with little or no knowledge of this part of history.

Challenge Prejudice

“The theme this year highlights that ordinary people, just like you or I, could be caught up in every aspect of genocide – as victims, perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers – if the circumstances permitted. I hope that this event enabled everyone to take time to reflect on what they, as ordinary people, can do to challenge prejudice today.

“Council works alongside its community planning partners, the Executive Office and communities to create a strong, vibrant, safe and inclusive borough where people work together to improve the quality of life for all.”

Keynote speakers at the event included Dr Carol Rittner RSM and Rev Derek Johnston.

Dr Rittner is a distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies Emerita at Stockton University, USA. She is the author and editor of 19 books, and numerous essays, in various scholarly and educational journals about the Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Rev Johnston is Lead Chaplain with Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and a member of the NI Board of Remembering Srebrenica.

The evening also included a version of the play ‘Judgement at Nuremberg’. The Ad Hoc Theatre Group performed the Abby Mann play - a fictionalised account of the Justice Trial of 1947 - as part of the evening of commemorations.

The programme concluded with a candle lighting ceremony accompanied by music provided by Sacred Services.

This event was funded by the Executive Office through Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s Good Relations Programme.