Rotherham Council is inviting residents to be the light in the darkness in a Holocaust Memorial Day video this year.
Residents would usually gather in All Saint’s Square in remembrance of the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust and in other genocides, but because of COVID-19 restrictions this is not possible.
This year the Council has produced a video featuring local faith leaders and representatives from the Council centred around the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2021 which is “Be the light in the darkness”
It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide.
Council Leader Cllr Chris Read, who features in the video, said: “Over the last few years we've been bringing together different parts of our community in All Saints Square to mark Holocaust Memorial day and this year we're not able to do that.
“So, to commemorate the occasion we've put together a video reflecting on this year’s theme of be the light in the darkness. We hope that people can take a few moments during the course of the video to reflect on their actions and the importance for all of us to come together, to see that what unites us is more important than what divides us.
“It can also be a time to recommit that we will never again allow such discrimination, such hatred, to run through our communities and that we will all take responsibility for our actions in bringing people together. In what has been an incredibly difficult year, we must all be the light that will bring us out on the other side.”
Holocaust Memorial Day Video 2021
Holocaust Memorial Day has taken place in the UK since 2001, with a UK Commemorative Ceremony and more than 10,000 local activities taking place all across the UK on or around 27 January each year.
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) is the charity established and funded by the UK Government to promote and support HMD in the UK.
This is the sixth Holocaust Memorial Day event that Rotherham Council’s has been involved in to mark the atrocities.
The video features the Mayor of Rotherham Councillor Jenny Andrews, Imam Zaid Hussain, Reverend Rachel Young, Rabbi Yoinosson Golomb, the Leader of the Council Cllr Chris Read and Rotherham Council Chief Executive Sharon Kemp. Local singer and songwriter, Nic Harding, also performs a song she has written that ties in with this year’s theme.