Every year I support Holocaust Memorial Day. This year the messaging underlined how ordinary people enabled horrific actions. We are all ‘ordinary people’ who have the power to make a difference with our actions, for good or ill. We can all challenge divisive narratives that aim to fragment our communities and demonise certain groups of people.
Please see below Jane Hutt MS, Minister for Social Justice’s statement on Holocaust memorial day 2023.
This Friday we remember the millions of people who were persecuted and killed during the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 is ‘Ordinary People’. During the Holocaust and the genocides that have followed, it was ordinary people that found themselves persecuted and murdered because they belonged to a community of people. It was ordinary people that took action and helped those being targeted. It was ordinary people that did nothing and accepted hateful propaganda. The theme highlights a stark reality of genocide. In many cases, these atrocities were facilitated by ordinary people.
In their introduction to this year’s theme, the Trust underlines how ordinary people have enabled horrific actions: ‘Ordinary people were policemen involved in rounding up victims, secretaries typing the records of genocide, dentists and doctors carrying out selections, ordinary people were neighbours wielding machetes in Rwanda, schoolteachers turned concentration camp guards in Bosnia.’
The theme has a powerful message which is relevant to us all. We are all “ordinary people” who have the power to make a difference with our actions, for good or ill. We as individuals have a choice to stand up to hate and prejudice. We can all challenge divisive narratives that aim to fragment our communities and demonise certain groups of people.
For 2023, the Welsh Government has funded the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to employ a support worker in Wales to inspire involvement across the nation. The support worker has been engaging with communities, encouraging their participation, and helping to support local commemoration events through guidance and the provision of resources.
There are a number of events taking place across Wales including:
- A memorial service at Tŷ Pawb in Wrexham on the 27th of January, which I will be attending. The headline speaker is poet Adam Kammerling, who has written a poetry based on his Jewish heritage and about his grandfather being a Holocaust survivor.
- The exhibition, ‘Sophie Scholl and the White Rose’, will be on show at both the Art Central Gallery, Barry and at Penarth Pier Pavilion. The exhibition tells the story of Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans who became activists, risking their lives by distributing anti-Nazi leaflets throughout Germany.
- This week both the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and the Joseph Herman Foundation in Swansea are hosting public screenings of films about the Holocaust.
- The Wales Hate Support Centre is holding an online webinar about the Holocaust on the 26th of January.
We are pleased to work alongside the Trust once again, both to support this work at a grassroots level as well as with the organisation of the national commemoration. The Wales National Ceremony will be available online from 11:00am on Holocaust Memorial Day. It will be an opportunity to hear the harrowing testimonies of Holocaust survivor Joan Salter MBE, and Antoinette Mutabazi, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda. We are grateful to both Joan and Antionette, and many other survivors of genocide, who devote hours of their time to share their stories and ensure the victims of these barbaric events are not forgotten.
At 4:00pm on 27 January, people across the UK will take part in a national moment to remember those who were killed during the Holocaust and other genocides. I hope you are all able to join in with the Light the Darkness moment, by lighting a candle and placing it in a window. The Trust asks that we also join in with the national conversation and share a photo of our candles on social media.
Buildings and landmarks across the UK will also light up in purple during this national moment of commemoration and solidarity. Many places across Wales are taking part including Welsh Government offices, the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, and Cyfarthfa Castle in Merthyr.
The Trust has also worked with the Royal Drawing School to organise the (Extra)Ordinary Portraits competition, which was open to anyone in the UK under 25 years of age. Participants were asked to create a portrait of an individual affected by the Holocaust, genocide, or identity-based persecution. An expert judging panel chose thirty portraits to be displayed for Holocaust Memorial Day, with five of the winning entrants coming from Wales, which are now available to view of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s website.
The Welsh Government also continues to fund the Holocaust Educational Trust to deliver the Lessons from Auschwitz Programme in Wales. Since 2008, the Programme has provided students across Wales with the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau and to hear from Holocaust survivors. After two years of virtual delivery, I am pleased that the students will once again take part in person this year. All participants become Young Ambassadors and are asked to continue to share their knowledge and encourage others to remember the Holocaust. One Young Ambassador is speaking at the Wales National Ceremony on Friday.
We welcome Lord Mann’s recent report on ‘Tackling Antisemitism in the UK’. The Welsh Government contributed to the development of this review, and we look forward to continuing to work with him on this important issue. As Lord Mann highlighted in his report, tackling antisemitism goes beyond education about the Holocaust.
It is important that our education system equips our young people to understand and respect their own and each other’s histories, cultures, and traditions. Our new curriculum reflects the true diversity of our population and that learners understand how diversity has shaped modern Wales, through mandatory teaching of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic histories, contributions, and experiences. This is a key part of our Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan, which is driving us towards meaningful change.
The Holocaust is an extremely painful and distressing part of history, but it is a part of history that we and future generations cannot forget. It happened because of divisive narratives and abuse of power. We must never lower our guard to these same toxic narratives that remain present today.
This year is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An historic and important milestone for humankind which was developed in response to the atrocities and inhumanity of the Second World War. The Universal Declaration states that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’ and that these rights are ‘the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’. It is well worth remembering the origins of these sentiments, at a time when there has been a growth in anti-human rights rhetoric across the world.
I will close this statement by thanking the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust for their important work. I remain grateful to them for holding the lessons of history before us and continuing to speak out against hate and prejudice.