Holocaust Memorial Day exists so that we can learn the lessons of the past to build a better future. It is observed every year in this country to remember the Holocaust (Shoah), when 6 million Jews along with many other people were sent to concentration and death camps. This year’s day falls on Sunday 27 January 2008; its theme is ’Imagine…remember, reflect, react’.
Speaking about the day, Sr Clare Jardine, Secretary to the Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations says: “It is very appropriate for Catholics to mark this day, in some way either personally or as communities. Not only do we want to ensure that the horrors of the Nazi era are never repeated but we also need to be aware of the danger of similar atrocities against other groups of people at our own time”.
In remembering, reflecting and reacting to the atrocities of the past, we can hold tightly to the hope-filled words of the legendary Anne Frank: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again”.
Useful links:
