Barking and Dagenham's Holocaust Memorial Day plans unveiled
Details of plans to mark this year's Holocaust Memorial Day have been released. Pictured is a view of the Birkenau concentration camp. - Credit: PA Archive/Press Association Images
The town hall has unveiled its plans to mark this year's Holocaust Memorial Day.
The annual event will bring together civic, religious and political leaders from Barking and Dagenham in a video to be shared on social media on Wednesday, January 27.
A commemorative, Holocaust Memorial Day flag will also be raised at Barking Town Hall.
Deputy leader and cabinet member for community leadership and engagement, Cllr Saima Ashraf, said: “As a borough, it is so important we remember the six million Jews who were murdered under Nazi persecution, and in genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
“This year’s theme is ‘Be the light in the darkness’ and I hope our residents will reflect on this and the many lives that were lost, whilst also challenging prejudice, discrimination and hatred that continues in our society today.
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"There is no place for hate and division in Barking and Dagenham.”
The theme encourages everyone to reflect on the depth’s humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities resisted darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide.
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The date marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp in occupied Poland during the Second World War.
Six million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust. Genocides followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is also holding an online event from 7pm on the day with details available on its website.
