Wearside unites for Holocaust memorial

The city of Sunderland will unite to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the Holocaust during a poignant memorial event.

Taking place on Holocaust Memorial Day, at Sunderland Minster, from 6.30pm, the event will bring the Wearside community together to pay their respects at a special service of remembrance.

Holocaust Memorial Day is the international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Today marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

Redby Primary Academy and Southmoor Academy school choirs will perform at the event, followed by moving speeches from two guest speakers who have personal connections to the atrocity which happened during the Second World War.

Guest speakers will include Smajo Baso, who will talk about his experience the Bosnia Genocide, and Gerald Stern, who will discuss his father’s escape from Germany.

Members of the community are invited to come along and take part. Entry is free and complimentary refreshments will be on offer.

In the run-up to the memorial event, a special exhibition titled ‘Children under the Nazis’ went on display at The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland on Friday and Saturday.

Made up of a collection of drawings, essays and testimonials collected in the early post- war, it offered an insight into the Holocaust through the eyes of children.