Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BE THE LIGHT... DARKNESS CAN NEVER RETURN
Charles’ Holocaust Memorial Day message
PRINCE Charles has said we must all “be the light that ensures the darkness can never return” in a powerful message for Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Prince of Wales urged people to ensure survivors’ stories are remembered as the number of witnesses to the genocide dwindles.
The millions of Jews and other minorities executed by the Nazis are honoured around the world today.
Charles said in a recorded message: “As I speak, the last generation of living witnesses is tragically passing from this world, so the task of bearing witness falls to us.
“That is why The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, of which I am so proud to be patron, has this year chosen the theme ‘Be the Light in the Darkness’.
“This is not a task for one time only, nor is it a task for one generation, or one person.
“It is for all people, all generations, and all time. This is our time when we can, each in our own way, be the light that ensures the darkness can never return.”
The traditional remembrance ceremony will be hosted online from 7pm. People have been urged to show their support by lighting a candle in a window after the hour-long ceremony.
National landmarks including the Blackpool Tower, Wembley Stadium, Cardiff Castle and the Tyne Bridge will be bathed in purple light at 8pm.
The online service will feature messages from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Premier League footballers Jordan Henderson and Bruno Fernandes and religious leaders as well as the celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls.
The ceremony will also shine a light on the identity-based persecution in the world today, faced by Uighur Muslims in China and Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
HMD has its own emoji on Twitter, a candle with a purple flame.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the atrocity’s survivors were the perfect inspiration for positivity.
She said: “There has been real distress and pain and suffering felt in this country and around the world in this pandemic. But the survivors I spoke to – many who are shielding – are the epitome of strength.
“I find that pretty inspiring from 90-year-old survivors who have been through the very worst.
“Listen to the eyewitnesses, find out about what happened to these people, and understand that when we are learning about the past, it is for the sake of learning history but it is also because we can learn from it.”
hmd.org.uk