Sunderland to remember victims of genocide
Residents in Sunderland are being invited to join a programme of events to remember the victims of genocides worldwide.
The city will be holding a number of commemorative events in the lead0up to and beyond Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27.
The international theme for 2019 commemorations is ‘Torn from Home’, and Sunderland Libraries Services has organised a number of events.
Included will be talks and presentations to schools and communitygroupsfromEducationCo-OrdinatorforNewcastle Reform Synagogue, Ruth Heyman,whosefamilyexperienced the Jewish Holocaust.
Mrs Heyman said: “Both my mother and my husband’s parents came to the UK as refugees from Nazi Germany. They were fortunate in being able to live and work in the relative safety of wartime Britain, something for which they were always grateful.
“As my mother’s generation passes on, I feel it is important to remind present and future generations of the way in which the fear and hatred of a minoritygroupcantakerooteveninan economicallyadvancedcountry.”
There will also be an exhibition‘ChildrenUndertheNazis’, curated by Dr Beate Muller of Newcastle University in collaboration with the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation, on display in three public libraries on Wearside.
First shown in 2017, the exhibition focuses on the lives of different children during Nazi rule, including Jewish children, disabled children, Sinti and Roma, but also German Hitler Youth.
The exhibition, on loan from Newcastle University, will be on display at City Library, The Museum and Winter Gardens, from February 11 to 21, Houghton Library from February25toMarch7,andWashington Town Centre Library from March 11 to March 21.
Dr Muller will also be working with the HumanKind charity at Houghton Library on March 4 with a series of interactive school workshops based on the Holocaust exhibition.
There is also the chance to learn more about Anne Frank at the exhibition being hosted in The Bridges on January 25 and 26 and a commemoration service will be held at Sunderland Minster on Monday, January 28, at 6.30pm. Both organised by Sunderland’s Interfaith Forum.