Holocaust Memorial Day was marked by an event in Park Gardens, Stroud, on Sunday afternoon.
Organised by Stroud Red Band, the event featured readings and songs as well as contributions from Abbi Kirby from Stroud Against Racism, Cllr Doina Cornell, leader of Stroud District Council, and Wayne Daewood, representing the Roma community. Anita Kamat joined the band to sing songs to remember those killed in the Holocaust.
Holocaust Memorial Day took place on Thursday, January 27th, and commemorated the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. Jeremy Green, one of the organisers of Sunday’s event, said: “we had a few speeches, some readings and some songs, and some music, which were relevant to the themes of remembering the victims of the Holocaust and remembering people who fought against fascism.
“This stuff hasn’t gone away. We had a reading from Michael Rosen – a poem – which said people think that fascism is going to come looking like grotesques in Nazi uniforms. And it isn’t. It’s here. As we have now with the pandemic, where people are worried and frightened and insecure, there are nasty people who want to take advantage of vulnerable people and recruit them into some really unpleasant things.
“And that’s why it’s important – the point of these commemorations is to put a wall between us and them.”
The event concluded with David Michael reciting The Kaddish, the Mourner’s Prayer.
