Holocaust Memorial Day in London

Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorating all of the people who died in the Nazi concentration camps during World War 2. The UK has marked the occasion with a national commemoration since 2001 and a different area of the country has hosted it each year, it was last held in London in 2005. This year’s ceremony will take place in Newcastle.

The 27th January was chosen as the day to mark the Holocaust because it was on that day that Auschwitz was liberated, Israel has a day for remembering Jewish victims but that takes place in April. The United Nations declared the date International Holocaust Memorial Day in 2005. Earlier this week the London Assembly held a Holocaust Memorial ceremony at City Hall on the South Bank attended by the Mayor, concentration camp survivors and people from the Jewish community.

If you’re in London and would like to be involved in this anniversary there are a number of events happening on or close to the 27th January. If you want to learn more about what happened, get along to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth only a 10-15 minute walk from the London Eye, where they have an excellant and in depth Holocaust Exhibition that charts the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and gives a detailed account of how the concentration camps came into being and worked. Its worth giving yourself some time if you go there, the exhibition is very thorough.