by Carol Burns
Leeds City Square, 26th January 2025
80 of us gathered in the centre of Leeds – Jews, Muslims, Christians, other faiths and none – to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. We held the event independently of any other organisation so we could include reference to Gaza. As well as recalling the Nazi Holocaust with readings from Primo Levi and Eli Wiesel, we recalled the genocides that took place in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan. We also included poetry from Gaza, including ‘If I should die’ by Refaat Alareer and ‘Oh rascal children of Gaza’ by Khaled Juma. There were no flags. No banners. No slogans. Between each reading, we held a minute’s silence.
Robert Cohen gave an introductory speech and explained why those of us organising this event thought it was so important to remember those killed in the genocide in Gaza. His powerful words are reproduced below.
“We are gathered here in Leeds City Square to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Tomorrow will be the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland in 1945.
It’s estimated that more than a million people perished in Auschwitz during the Second World War. The vast majority were Jews. But there were also Roma and Sinti and Gays, all murdered just for who they were.
In all, it’s estimated that six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust including around 1.5 million children.
The Nazi Holocaust destroyed a third of the global Jewish population, with centuries of culture and heritage lost forever.
And the world said: NEVER AGAIN. But genocide did happen again.”
Read Robert Cohen’s full speech in our Views section