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Gibraltar commemorates international Holocaust Memorial Day

Pic by Johnny Bugeja

Today Gibraltar and the rest of the world will observe international Holocaust Memorial Day and this year’s theme is ‘Ordinary People’.

“Genocide is ultimately enabled by ordinary people. It is ordinary people who also turn a blind eye and then believe propaganda and discriminate. Ordinary people join regimes that commit murder under their regime’s guise,” said a statement from the Government.

“People who are persecuted, oppressed and murdered in genocides are persecuted just because they are “different” ordinary people who belong to a different particular group.”

Today people and communities from around the world will unite to remember and also learn about the Holocaust and genocides that have occurred around the world in the past, in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories and also more recently in Bosnia, Darfur, Cambodia, Myanmar and Rwanda.

On the annual Memorial Day the Government together with dignitaries and a cross section of the community have stood together at Commonwealth Park, united against antisemitism and discrimination.

This year, after a one-minute silence the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, will light a candle outside No 6 Convent Place at 5pm. The Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, will also take part in the candle lighting.
They will be joined by the Governor, the Minister for Equality, the President of the Jewish Community and other dignitaries.

The Government is also encouraging others to light a candle as a mark of remembrance at 5pm this evening.

In December 2017 a presentation titled ‘Learning From Auschwitz’ was delivered by Arek Hersh, a Holocaust Survivor and Mike Levy, a Holocaust Education Advisor in Gibraltar.

A video recording was taken of this presentation and is available to view with subtitles on the Ministry of Equality website: www.gibraltar.gov.gi/department-equality or from the YouTube link:

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