Holocaust Memorial Day

National Holocaust Memorial Day will be marked on Wednesday, 27 January in Liverpool with a digital commemoration which will be available to watch and mark the occasion safely from home.

Due to the current national lockdown, it is not possible to gather together to mark the date so a video will be made available marking the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenhau and more recent Genocides including Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

The Service will include a pre-recorded Act of Commitment from our Faith Leaders, guest speaker Dame Louise Ellman DBE and musical performances from King David High School.

The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Anna Rothery, Acting Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Wendy Simon and Rabbi Ariel Abel, Chaplain to the Forces and Minister, Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation will lay wreaths at the Memorial Stone in St John’s Garden.

With special thanks to students from Alsop High School who have recorded a special Act of Collective Worship for Holocaust Memorial Day which is featured in our service this year and features the testimony of Auschwitz Survivor, Mr Zigi Shipper, BEM.

A word of warning – this short film, from around 28 minutes in – contains graphic images of the holocaust, which are distressing.

The full film will be available on this page from 10.00am on Wednesday 27 January 2021 below.

This film was produced with the help of Liverpool Parish Church, Our Lady and St. Nicholas

Alsop High School Film Feature

Alsop High School have a partnership with Holocaust Educational Trust as part of their Lessons from Auschwitz Project, and Mr Shipper, an Auschwitz survivor, usually travels to Liverpool to deliver his Auschwitz Survivor testimony.

This year Alsop was determined to produce a short film to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and to commemorate this important event. During the Act of Collective Worship students from Year 12 and 13, speak about why it is so important to remember and to reflect on the depth humanity can sink to. The film also prompts students to consider the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide.

Mr Chris Wilson, Headteacher at Alsop High School writes:

“It is a great privilege for Alsop students to produce this film which includes the inspirational testimony of Mr Zigi Shipper, BEM. His Auschwitz survivor testimony is a powerful reminder of the horrors so many experienced at the hands of the Nazis during World War Two.”