Holocaust Memorial Day 2015: Events in UK museums and galleries
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
Officially taking place on Tuesday, this year's Holocaust Memorial Day has a theme of Keep the Memory Alive. Here are some of the events to look out for during the rest of the month
The family of Peter Kurer, who fled Nazi Austria for Manchester, will have their story told at the city's Jewish Museum as part of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day© Courtesy MJMClaude Lanzmann returns to the Theresienstadt ghetto, in Czechoslovakia, where he conducted a series of interviews with Benjamin Murmelstein, a rabbi who was the last President of the Jewish Council there. Murmelstein fought bitterly to prevent Adolf Eichmann – one of Hitler’s most ruthless right-hand men, and a chief architect of the Holocaust – from carrying out his evil work, preventing 121,000 Jews from leaving the country and halting the liquidation of the ghetto.
Holocaust memorial events, Museum of Liverpool, February 1
National Museums Liverpool take inspiration from David Berger, whose words, published in the Last Letters from the Holocaust series, found comfort in difficult moments by hoping that people would remember his life. Eric Cohen also explores the Holocaust from his family’s perspective. A talk, Black Germans and the Holocaust, also takes place on Tuesday.
Holocaust Memorial Day events, QUAD, Derby, Tuesday
On the 20th anniversary of the massacres at Srebrenica, Bosnia, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 100th Anniversary of the Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Quad presents an evening of words, music and dance to commemorate the victims of atrocities. Advance booking requested; followed by a screening of Night Will Fall.
Let it Go; social media debate; My Story, The Wiener Library, London, Monday – February 3
Dame Stephanie Shirley, a child refugee from Nazism, recalls taking one of the last trains to safety, proving good on her promise to repay her English foster family by creating a leading software company and championing charitable giving. Hear her story on Monday (booking essential), followed by a debate for 16-25 year olds on the value of social media in memorialising the Holocaust (Wednesday, email to book) and the story of Bea Green, a Kindertransportee (booking essential).
Southwark Keeps the Memory Alive, Imperial War Museum, London, Tuesday
Songs by students of Notre Dame Secondary School, a film narrated by Imelda Staunton OBE, memorial prayers, music by members of Southbank Sinfonia and wreath laying and remembrance at the nearby Holocaust Memorial Tree and the Soviet War Memorial. Begins in the museum cinema.
As Seen Through These Eyes, St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, Glasgow, Friday
Screening of the film telling the story of a group of Holocaust survivors, followed by insights from Ela Weissberger, who used art as a means of survival at the Theresienstadt concentration, Marianne Grant, who also believes art saved her life in a camp, and Morag Reid, who will speak about the life of Jane Haining.
Holocaust Memorial Day Event, D-Day Museum, Portsmouth, Sunday
Free admission to the museum and a small display about some of the issues Holocaust Memorial Day can teach us about.
A Jar of Kindness, Firing Line Museum, Cardiff, until Tuesday
A chance for visitors to make kindness pledges in honour of a Holocaust victim, adding a coloured heart to a jar of kindness in the museum. Pledges can be taken away or shared on a board.
The Reader, Rutland County Museum, Oakham, Tuesday
Stephen Daldry’s Academy Award-winning, Kate Winslet-starring film adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel in which post-war generations in Germany struggle to come to terms with the effects and implications of the Holocaust.
Jewish Heritage Trail, York, Sunday and Wednesday
Beginning at the museum garden gates, this walk, recalling the Jewish contribution to York, visits sites connected with medieval and modern Jews, ends at Clifford’s Tower, where a massacre of Jews took place in 1190. A tour and talk will also be held at the tower on Sunday.
Keeping the Memory Alive, Jewish Museum, Manchester, Sunday
Hear the stories of four Holocaust survivors in the company of the museum's Learning Officers, who will explain the venue's new Holocaust Education programme, launching on Tuesday. Booking essential.
- Visit hmd.org.uk for full listings. For more resources, visit the Ben Uri Museum's Holocaust Education section, Imperial War Museum's permanent Holocaust exhibition and The Holocaust Explained from the London Jewish Cultural Centre.
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