Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is held every year on 27 January for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution, and in the genocides which have followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
This year's theme
You didn’t think about yesterday, and tomorrow may not happen, it was only today that you had to cope with and you got through it as best you could."
Iby Knill, Holocaust survivor
HMD 2022's theme is One Day, a day that we put aside to come together, to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur - in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide.
We learn more about the past, we empathise with others today, and we take action for a better future.
One Day looks at what was happening on 27 January in:
- Berlin in 1941
- Cambodia in 1976
- Rwanda in 1994
- the lead up to the genocide
And, vitally, it also looks at today's world - on 27 January 2022, what is happening around us?
Commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day
East Ayrshire Councillors and pupils from Doon Academy commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2022.
Watch the full playlist on our YouTube channel
The Holocaust and genocide
HMD is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
Between 1941 and 1945, six million Jewish men, women and children were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Their attempt to murder all the Jews in Europe, shook the foundations of civilisation. Bea Green was born in Munich in 1924. When she was a teenager she fled rising violence and persecution of Jews in Germany by coming to the UK on the Kindertransport.
Bea Green's story on Bing videos
Nazi persecution
The Nazis targeted anyone they believed threatened their ideal of a ‘pure Aryan race’, including Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, gay people, political opponents and others.
Cambodia
From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, imposed an extremist programme to reconstruct Cambodia. Millions of people died through starvation, disease and exhaustion, and thousands were executed. Sokphal Din tells his story of surviving forced labour in Cambodia’s notorious killing fields.
Sokphal Din's story on YouTube
Rwanda
In a violent outpouring in 1994, approximately one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in just 100 days in the Genocide in Rwanda. Actress Nina Sosanya reads the poem Colors - A thought to all the survivors of the 1994 genocide by Michaella Rugwizangoga, an award-winning Rwandan poet. The poem was dedicated to the survivors of the genocide as a message of hope and solidarity.
Nina Sosanya reads the poem 'Colors' on YouTube
Bosnia
In July 1995, against the backdrop of an ongoing civil war, Bosnian Serb forces led by Ratko Mladić murdered around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica.
Darfur
In 2003 a civil war began in the region of Darfur. Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed attacked black African people, destroying entire villages, murdering civilians and displacing many more.
Despite the horrors of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution, and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, people continue to be subject to persecution and violence based on their identities, in the UK and around the world.
Rohingya muslims
In December 2019, the United Nations passed a resolution strongly condemning rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups in Myanmar, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. Myanmar has been accused of genocide against the Rohingya and more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017 to escape the violence.Actress Georgina Campbell reads the testimony of Hansu Mala, a Rohingya Muslim from the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
The testimony of a Rohingya refugee on YouTube