Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day (HMD)

Southampton and the surrounding areas will mark the UK’s national Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day (HMD) with a commemorative event organised by the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton on behalf of the city.

Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day is the annual, national commemoration and remembrance of victims of national, ethnic, racial, and/or religious persecution. It commemorates all people murdered in genocide. This year, Southampton’s Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day event falls on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 1945, the largest extermination camp in the genocide against the Jews of Europe during the Second World War.

Southampton’s HMD event will take place in the Sir James Matthews Building (University of Southampton, City Centre) on 27 January 2025 from 6pm to 8pm (doors will be open at 5.30pm for refreshments). This event is free although registration is required, and all are welcome to attend.

On behalf of the city, the University of Southampton is honoured to welcome Janine Webber BEM, a survivor of the L’viv Ghetto, to give her testimony to attendees in conversation with Anoushka Alexander-Rose, whose grandfather fled the city in 1939.

Mazzy Westwood, a former student of the Department of History at the University of Southampton, will offer a reading from Vesna Maric’s Bluebird, a powerful memoir of the author’s experiences as a refugee from the Bosnian War (1992-1995).

There will also be reflections from local Sixth Form College students on their participation in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s (HET) Lessons from Auschwitz programme as well as their engagement with initiatives of the Parkes Institute.

Registration details and tickets can be found here. Please note that this event is in-person and online. Registrants for online participation will be provided with a Zoom link.

Refreshments will be available before the event, and attendees will be able to tour the Parkes Institute’s newest exhibition on refugee scholars at the University of Southampton, as well as stalls featuring local community groups and anti-racism/refugee charities.

This event sits as part of a wider HMD programme featuring a film screening of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2023) with Phoenix Films, tickets for which can be purchased on their website.

Please contact Maddie Walch and Immy Tozer for any queries.