Queen Leads UK's 60th Anniversary Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorations
26 January 2005
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are to be the guests of honour today [27th
January] at a special event to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The commemoration at the Palace of Westminster brings together more than 600 Holocaust survivors living in Britain, together with British soldiers who helped to liberate Bergen-Belsen death camp. Others in attendance include religious and political leaders.
Organised by the Home Office, the event will be attended by the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary. Earlier in the day, the Queen will host a private reception for survivors at St James’s Palace.
The anniversary coincides with the UK’s fifth annual Holocaust Memorial Day marked by more than 500 separate community and school events across the UK, from Cardiff to Edinburgh, Norwich to Jersey and Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight.
The Earl of Wessex will represent the UK at a simultaneous international ceremony attended by 29 leaders from around the globe, to be held at Auschwitz itself.
The Westminster event – which begins at 2.30pm and is to be broadcast at 7pm on BBC TWO – is the centrepiece of the UK’s commemorations. The Queen will lead survivors in the lighting of sixty memorial candles, while grandchildren of survivors read the names of 3000 relatives who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
A oratorio based on Anne Frank’s diary – the libretto of which was adapted by Melanie Challenger – will be performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and introduced by Hannah Pick, one of Anne Frank’s former classmates and herself a survivor. Others due to participate in the event include: the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks; Paul Oppenheimer, a survivor; actors Christopher Eccleston and Stephen Fry; and Sven Goran Eriksson, the England football manager who took the team to visit Auschwitz prior to a match in Poland in autumn 2004.
The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, said:
“The Holocaust and the lessons it teaches us should never be forgotten. There is no place for extremism and racism in Britain. But as we remember the many who lost their lives we are reminded that the responsibility of ensuring a democratic and tolerant society, free of the evils of prejudice, racism and other forms of bigotry, lies on us all. This fifth Holocaust Memorial Day focuses on the personal experiences of the survivors and liberators. I hope that as many as possible will take the opportunity to listen and reflect on what they have to say.”
Dr Stephen Smith, the Chair Designate of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which will take over responsibility for the day from the Home Office for 2006, added:
“Today’s generation is the last that will have the opportunity to hear at first hand the testimony of survivors and liberators of the Holocaust. We have a responsibility to lend them our voices and to find ways to continue to educate and inform our children, and their children, about the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. This is a precious responsibility, not just as a commemoration for all those who suffered, but as a reminder that the lessons of the Holocaust are as relevant today as ever.”
