Service at cathedral to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

A special service to mark Holocaust Memorial Day is due to be held on Friday, January 27, at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

It will take place in the Peace Garden in the Abbey Gardens at 10.30 am.

The theme for 2023’s Holocaust Memorial Day is Ordinary People. Ordinary people were perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers, witnesses – and ordinary people were victims. During the service, the Holocaust and other genocides will be remembered, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Joining the cathedral for the service will be the Guildhall Feoffment School and County High School who will contribute readings and music. As well as the service the cathedral will be open throughout the day with areas set aside for reflection and contemplation.

Rev Canon Matthew Vernon said” “We hold an annual service for Holocaust Memorial Day because it’s important to reflect on how injustice affects people throughout generations. Genocide continues to reverberate today and we should all feel the call to challenge discrimination in our time.”

A week prior to Holocaust Memorial Day, on Saturday, January 21, the cathedral will welcome Diana Cook for “They Left No Footprint – A Holocaust Survivor’s Story”.

Diana’s mother, Margot Pogorzelski Hodge escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany a few weeks before war broke out. After Margot’s death in 2014, Diana wanted to ensure Margot’s story was told and retold to as wide an audience as possible.

Using family photos and voiced extracts from a brief memoir Margot wrote describing her childhood and early adult life, Diana describes how Margot’s idyllic childhood changed dramatically after the rise of the Nazi party. She will explore the echoes of the past that resonate today and how history is being repeated all over the world, causing the mass movement of people.

You can find out more about Holocaust Memorial Day at https://www.hmd.org.uk/

Book tickets to “They Left No Footprint – A Holocaust Survivor’s Story” at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/they-left-no-footprint-a-holocaust-survivors-story-tickets-483772325047