School-children from Swansea will be playing their part in ensuring the victims of genocide cannot be forgotten as part of Holocaust Memorial Day 2012.
On Friday, January 27, Swansea Lord Mayor Cllr Ioan Richard will be attending a special Assembly at Olchfa Comprehensive School, as part of the city’s commemoration of the national annual event.
Olchfa will be among schools across the city who will be ensuring the memories of victims live on ahead of the main Civic Event in the afternoon where the Lord Mayor will be leading the commemorations at Swansea Civic Centre from 2pm.
The school is the lead for the event this year and will be including music from Schindler’s List in a special Assembly. Students will read statements from survivors of genocide. There will be a minute’s reflection ahead of the lighting of a candle.
This year’s theme is Speak Up, Speak Out reminding people that when no-one speaks out or speaks up terrible things can happen such as the German Holocaust or the genocide that has happened around the world since 1945, including places like Cambodia.
The main Civic Event at Swansea Council’s Civic Centre will include a viewing of a special exhibition called Jewish Refugees in South Wales 1933 to 1945.
The exhibition tells the moving stories of Jewish adults and children from Central and Eastern Europe who arrived in South Wales after the rise of Hitler in 1933. They came from different countries and different backgrounds but they were all fugitives from Nazism.
Ellen Davies, one of the people featured, will be in attendance.
Swansea Metropolitan University will also be providing a film of testimony from a Holocaust survivor.
Lord Mayor Cllr Ioan Richard will lead a candle lighting ceremony at the close of the civic event. He said: “I am delighted that here in Swansea we have both a schools-based event with a different school taking the lead each year as well as a civic event to encourage every generation to remember.
“Swansea is Wales’ first City of Sanctuary due to its history of offering sanctuary to people who have fled from violence or persecution.
“It is therefore only fitting that Swansea Council joins many other local authorities throughout the UK to support and promote Holocaust Memorial Day.
“We must never forget what happened as part of our efforts to ensure it can never be repeated.”
Cllr Mary Jones, Cabinet Member for Business Improvement and Efficiency, will read Testimony from a survivor.
She said: “Swansea has marked Holocaust Memorial Day since it was launched in the UK in 2001.
“It provides an opportunity for everyone to learn lessons from the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides and apply them to the present day to create a safer, better future.”
