Today, January 27th, marks the 65th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Survivors Fund (SURF) has been involved in marking the commemoration in a variety of ways. Our Co-Chair, Liliane Umubyeyi, was interviewed for a film that will be screened at the national event at the Guildhall later today. Our trustee, Jean Louis Mazimpaka, was interviewed for a podcast for the Holocaust Memorial Day website.

Andy Lawrence, a teacher from Hampton School, and the education coordinator for SURF, also developed a lesson plan to be used for the theme of HMD this year, A Legacy of Hope.  Further resources are available from the new SURF education blog that Andy has developed with our webmaster, Liam Dempsey, more about which on a later post.

SURF Founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt OBE, spoke at the Brent Council HMD ceremony, and I have been organising the Tower Hamlets HMD programme – including the staging of the SURF exhibition, Heroes Of Our Time, with photos by Andrew Sutton.

The Holocaust ended 65 years ago, and the world then said “never again’. Less than 40 years later, one million Tutsis and a number of moderate Hutus were killed in one hundred days during the Rwandan genocide. That is why we must remember.

You can show your support by lighting a virtual candle of remembrance.

Thank you.