Holocaust Memorial Day exhibition coming to Flowerfield Arts Centre
Mon, January 20, 2020
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council will mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 with a special exhibition in Flowerfield Arts Centre.
Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia, this year’s campaign under the theme of Stand Together explores how genocidal regimes have deliberately fractured societies by marginalising certain groups. It aims to show how this can be challenged by individuals standing together with their neighbours and speaking out against oppression.
The free exhibition will be open to the public on Saturday 25th January from 10am -1pm, Monday 27th January from 9am - 9pm and Tuesday 28th January from 9am - 4pm. (Please note new extended opening hours).
Encouraging people to attend, the Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Councillor Sean Bateson said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity each year for people to stand together with those in their local community, across boundaries of faith, age and ethnicity. We can all learn about those affected by genocide around the world and take action for the future. I would urge our residents and visitors to take time to visit this poignant but powerful exhibition in Flowerfield Arts Centre.”
The Holocaust, Nazi persecution of other groups and each subsequent genocide was enabled by ordinary citizens not standing with their targeted neighbours. Commenting on the exhibition, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust CEO Olivia Marks-Woldman said: “Today our world often feels fragile and vulnerable, with widespread prejudice and the language of hatred needing to be challenged in the UK. Now more than ever, we need to stand together with others in our communities to stop division and the spread of identity-based hostility in our society.”
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust highlights the steps towards genocide such as ‘Us Versus Them’ where actively developed policies separated people causing certain groups to be seen as ‘the other.’ The second step was using ‘Propaganda to Divide’ with stereotypes and existing prejudices creating caricatures and dehumanising those involved. As poignantly told by Iby Knill, a Holocaust survivor, ‘I made a promise to a girl in Auschwitz - to make young people aware of the dangers that the dehumanisation, denigration and differentiation of people can lead to.’
“Don’t be content in your life just to do no wrong, be prepared every day to try and do some good”. Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children from Nazi-occupied Europe.
This exhibition is supported by the Executive Office District Council Good Relations Programme under the Together: Building a United Community Strategy.
