This year we as a school community had the privilege to participate in the Holocaust Memorial Day in honour of the memory of all of the victims of the Holocaust in the Mansion House, Dublin
The Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration is firmly established in the national calendar and takes place in Dublin every year on the Sunday nearest to 27 January, the date of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The event cherishes the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and recalls the millions of innocent Jewish men, women and children and others, who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis because of their ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, political affiliations or their religious beliefs.
Holocaust Memorial Day honours the memory of all of the victims of the Holocaust. The inclusion of all the victim groups is integral to the commemoration, highlighting the consequences of intolerance. The commemoration demonstrates the Irish Government’s commitment to the Declaration of Stockholm 2000 when the signatory countries undertook to commemorate the Holocaust and to teach about it every year.
Holocaust Memorial Day is organised under the auspices of HETI in association with the Department of Justice and Equality, The Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration and Dublin City Council. It is attended by people from all walks of Irish life and society, and from a broad spectrum of political, religious, community and cultural institutions.
The ceremony includes readings, survivors’ recollections, music and candle-lighting. Six candles are lit for the six million Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust as well as candles for all of the other victim groups. More than 100 school students from all over Ireland attend the ceremony, some of them reading from the Scroll of Names an Irish memorial to cherished family members of people living in Ireland, who were murdered. Holocaust Memorial Day is always a very moving, dignified and impressive occasion. (http://hetireland.org/)
