The University of Bristol will hold a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony this Thursday [January 27]. The ceremony, to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the extermination and concentration camps, will show its respects to the victims and survivors of one of the worst acts of inhumanity and genocide ever committed in modern history.
The event, organised by the University Chaplaincy, will be a reflective ceremony with music, poems, prayers and readings, including a silence. The Lord Mayor of Bristol will also be in attendance. The ceremony will be held at the Victoria Rooms, Queens Road at 1.15 pm.
Candles will be lit throughout the ceremony to remember the victims of the Holocaust; the Jews, gypsies, disabled people and other victims, and also genocides that have taken place in the 20th century in Cambodia, Guatemala, Bosnia and Rwanda. The final candle lit will be to remember victims of violent conflict taking place today. Jewish, Christian and Muslim prayers for peace will bring the ceremony to a close.
Revd Jutta Mueller-Schnurr, one of the ceremony organisers, said: “We must not let the Holocaust and other crimes committed against one another since fade away into history.
“It is especially important in a place like a university, where thoughts and ideas for the future are born and shaped and where skills for leadership are acquired, to remember what human beings are capable of.”