As some of you may know, I organise a Holocaust Memorial Ceremony each year. As such, I wish to invite you to this year’s ceremony which will be held on Friday evening 27th January at 7pm in St. Aidan’s Academy, Hundens Lane, Darlington.
This is an important event to us all as it not only reminds us of the atrocity that occurred during the Second World War, but we are reminded of man’s inhumanity to man since 1945.
The Holocaust gives us the opportunity to remember that the six million people who were mercilessly killed by the Nazis were people – they lived, they worked, they shared the same joys, the same pride in their children, and the same sadness at the time of loss.
To condemn these appalling acts of brutality to history books and academic learning, where students would reduce the crimes to dates and numbers, is an insult to those who were persecuted and to their families who remember. We must remember by remembering to try to ensure that such atrocities do not happen again.
This years Holocaust Ceremony will be led by the Rt. Rev. Sarah Clark, Bishop of Jarrow and supported by students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, four of who visited Auschwitz in November.
This years theme is ‘Ordinary People’ which reflects on the victims over the years, those extraordinary people who risked everything to save others and those other ‘ordinary’ people who helped and supported the oppressors. The presentation will include four of our students looking forward with hope, despite the world’s economic difficulties and despite the war in Ukraine.
So, please join us at 7.00pm on Friday 27th January, in St. Aidan’s Academy, Hundens Lane, Darlington DL1 1LL.
Councillor Gerald G. Lee
Heighington & Coniscliffe Ward