Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is an annual, global day of observance held in remembrance of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, alongside millions of others killed under Nazi persecution and during later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Inviting us to come together to remember and honour victims and survivors of genocide, HMD calls on people and governments around the world to reaffirm our commitment to preventing such atrocities from happening in the future.
The theme for HMD 2024 is ’Fragility of Freedom’ highlighting the ways in which those targeted for persecution will typically have their freedoms eroded and removed by perpetrator regimes. Freedom is fragile and vulnerable to abuse, and we cannot be complacent about it.
Read more about this year’s theme on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website.
A range of activities are taking place at UCL to mark HMD 2024. On 27 January the Portico building will be lit in purple, and UCL will be taking part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s #LightTheDarkness campaign on social media - use the hashtags #HolocaustMemorialDay and #LightTheDarkness on X, Facebook and Instagram. If you’d like to participate in the campaign from home you can light a candle at 8pm on January 27, and safely place it in your window.
Our current list of scheduled events is below, alongside key resources around Holocaust education.
Events
24 January, 1pm-2pm: Lunch Hour Lecture for Holocaust Memorial Day: Telling the Story
Online/open to all.Perhaps the most powerful way to understand the Holocaust is through the direct testimony of those who were the targets of Nazi antisemitism. In this special Lunch Hour Lecture to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 , Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich will talk to Dr Michael Spence about how she survived against the odds, her liberation by the British at Bergen-Belsen, and ongoing effects of this traumatic past.
27 January, 7pm: A New History of the Terezín Ghetto - Anna Hájková in conversation with François Guesnet (UCL Hebrew & Jewish Studies)
In person/open to all.To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, Velehrad, in cooperation with the Czech Embassy and the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies, will host paperback release of Anna Hájková’s The Last Ghetto. The event will take place at Velehrad (39 Lonsdale Road, Barnes SW13 9JP). To register please by 24 January.
