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City to stage Holocaust memorial event

Aberdeen City Council will mark Holocaust Memorial Day at the Town House on Thursday [26 January].

The event, held in association with partners and voluntary organisations, will give people the opportunity to remember the crimes of the Nazi period and other more recent atrocities and to reflect on how such crimes can be prevented from happening again. The chosen date for Holocaust Memorial Day is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945.

Holocaust Memorial Day remembers all the victims of the Nazis – including Jewish people, Gypsy Travellers and people persecuted because of their sexual orientation – and those who suffered and died in other acts of genocide. It aims to highlight the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and intolerant discrimination

The theme for the Town House event will be Speak Up, Speak Out, which hopes to encourage people to share the lessons of the past and present and to use their voices to create a safer and better future.

Aberdeen’s Holocaust Memorial Day in the Town and County Hall will begin at 10.30am with a formal opening by Depute Lord Provost Councillor Bill Cormie. A memorial candle will be lit and there will be time for a moment of reflection.

During the morning there will be musical performances and presentations, including a talk by Matt Biskup, the grandson of Holocaust survivors.

Speaking ahead of the event, Mr Biskup, 36, said the importance of remembering the atrocities of the Holocaust cannot be understated.

He added: “I think it is crucial to teach the younger generation about the Holocaust. Those who survived it are dying out so soon there will be no witnesses alive.

“It is very important that every young man and woman visits Auschwitz and sees with their own eyes what happens if you vote for people filled with hatred.

“They must realise that such things as hate, racism, prejudice and intolerance are the beginning of a long and very dangerous road.”

Mr Biskup said his grandfather, who was held at Auschwitz, died when he was six-years-old. Neither his grandfather, nor his grandmother, who survived the Ravensbruck women’s concentration camp in northern Germany, spoke about their experiences. Mr Biskup has since learned of the ordeals they went through.

Those attending Aberdeen’s Memorial Day will also have the opportunity to sign the Holocaust Memorial Book. Entry to the Town House and Town and County Hall is by the main door on Union Street. Entrance for guests with mobility difficulties is available via the Queen Street entrance.

In addition to the formal commemoration at the Town House, the Belmont Cinema on Belmont Street will host a special showing of Reflections, a film related to Holocaust Memorial Day, on Thursday 02 February from 6.45pm. The film, commissioned to commemorate the Holocaust, was made as part of the Speak Up, Speak Out Holocaust Memorial Day tributes, and presents a short series of recollections and reflections of the war, and of life beyond it, with two Gordon Highlander WW2 veterans.

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