In response to news about a motion to rename HMD in 2011
The following statement is from Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, in response to the news that Jeremy Corbyn and other MPs sponsored a motion in 2011 to rename Holocaust Memorial Day ‘Genocide Memorial Day’.
‘Anyone who has seen our website, or attended the HMD UK Ceremony, as Jeremy Corbyn has many times, knows that Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates the Holocaust, all victims of Nazi Persecution, and the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The Holocaust rightly holds the central place in HMD, marking not only the extremity of centuries of antisemitism [anti-Jewish hatred] but also the trauma which compelled the formulation of the international crime of genocide and a new international system of cross-border justice.
‘Holocaust Memorial Day is far more than one day, with activities taking place over a month and the impact lasting far longer. It is an educational, as well as commemorative, day, and marks subsequent genocides as well as the Holocaust. People come together from different communities across the UK – they learn from the past, increase their empathy for others, and do more to create a better future.’
Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust