International Holocaust Memorial Day 2023
Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day, marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on the same day in 1945. This year marks the 78th anniversary of the liberation, with the theme for this year’s Memorial Day being ‘Ordinary People’ exploring the ordinary people who let genocide happen, the ordinary people who actively perpetrated genocide, and the ordinary people who were persecuted.
The Worcester Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration Event took place in The Guildhall, Worcester at 10.30am this morning. Auschwitz survivor, Dr Mindu Hornick MBE, was the keynote speaker, offering a humble and sincere insight into the events of her past. Students from many local senior schools offered readings of reflection to an assembly of local dignitaries including those from Worcester City Council, the University of Worcester and Platform Housing.
RGS Worcester students were honoured to once again be asked to provide a musical interlude during the hour-long event. Three Upper Sixth Music Scholars – Saffron Crump (voice), Tobey Butler (piano) and Menna Sutton (violin) – formed a trio especially for the event and performed the Yiddish song ‘Shlof, Mayn Fegele’ (‘Sleep My Child’), arranged especially for the group by Director of Music, Mr Jonathan Soman. The trio performed this moving and delicate piece to Lower and Upper Sixth students in Headmaster’s Assembly earlier this week and it was appreciated at the city-wide event this morning by all who attended. We congratulate the three young musicians for their contribution to this important community event.
RGS Worcester was also represented at the event through Art with an exhibition entitled ‘Ordinary People. The lost lives of the Holocaust’ by Year Ten artists. Their artwork created a tribute to this important event using lino prints and mixed media with the aim of showing not only the enormity of the tragedy, but also that families were torn apart irrespective of age, occupation, or gender.
Headmaster, Mr John Pitt, commented: “I was pleased that RGS Worcester was once again very much involved in the City’s Holocaust Memorial event. The theme of ‘Ordinary People’ was a powerful reminder of the fact that genocide is committed by ordinary people against ordinary people, simply because they belong to a certain group in society. The theme should prompt us to consider how ordinary people can play a role in challenging prejudice and hatred today, in the hope that further genocides can be prevented through education and understanding. I was immensely proud of our pupils’ moving musical performance and of the artwork created for this event, both providing a fitting tribute to the commemoration”.
