Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 – One Day

The Star of David outlined in candles will be set out on the floor of York Minster’s Chapter House to mark the cathedral’s Holocaust Memorial Commemoration for 2022.

Cathedrals mark this week’s Holocaust Memorial Day 2022: One Day

Candles will be lit and added until the Star of David is completed when 600 candles – representing the 6 million Jews and other groups murdered by the Nazis in the Second World War – are lit.

The Minster’s act of commemoration is part of a week-long programme of events taking place across the city of York to mark international Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on the 27 January each year.

This video below is from last years memorial day, Be the Light in the Darkness.

The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945.

Truro Cathedral is hosting an exhibition all week to show how prejudices and hate crime between peoples, has fed genocides.

Local community and faith groups who have suffered persecution, and who can face persecution today have been invited into the cathedral on Thursday (HMD) to share their experience. Candles will be lit in solidarity for all victims of genocide and there will be videos produced at Falmouth University and speeches from the community groups and civic leaders at a service at 1pm which can be joined online too.

You can join or find out more here.

Ripon too will be streaming a Service of Commemoration on Thursday, in partnership with Harrogate Hebrew Congregation, the Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire and North Yorkshire County Council.

A spokesperson for the cathedral said:

“We remember all those affected by the Holocaust and subsequent genocides and pray that never again will power be misused, beauty marred and humankind divided and we thank God for all those who work for peace and reconciliation in this broken world.”

The service will be available on Ripon Cathedral – YouTube.

And St Edmundsbury Cathedral is taking their service into the peace garden of the Abbey Gardens on Thursday morning and has organised a silent meditation at lunchtime in the cathedral followed with a series of short reflections, titled Place, Space, Heart and Mind, delivered throughout the afternoon in the Nave by Revd Sally Letman and Revd Sarah Geileskey: Alumni of the Council of Christians and Jews collaboration with The International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

These will take place at 1.30 pm, 2.15 pm, 3.00 pm and 3.45 pm.

The Cathedral will also show videos across screens as reminders of genocide with poetry and art displayed to encourage a creative response. The evening’s Evensong music will reflect the remembrance.

Revd Canon Matthew Vernon said,

‘This annual service is an important moment to pause and reflect on how injustice affects people throughout the generations. Past genocides including the Holocaust continue to reverberate today and call us to challenge discrimination in our time. Remembrance and special services help us learn more about the past and inspire us to take action for a better future.’

More here.

These are just some of the ways our cathedrals are marking this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day this Thursday. Do check individual cathedral websites for more information and to find out more.

The theme for 2022 Holocaust Memorial Day is One Day. Find out more here.