Holocaust Memorial Day 2012

The Plymouth Hebrew Congregation, the Plymouth Church Leaders Meeting, the Plymouth Centre for Faith and Cultural Diversity and Plymouth City Council invite you to a ceremony of remembrance for Holocaust Memorial Day at the memorial tree in the English Garden at Mount Edgcumbe, at 12.30 p.m.

Our thoughts will be led first by The Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth. Rev. Chris Clewer, Chair of Churches Together in Plymouth will speak next. He will be followed by Barbara Hickling a Buddhist and member of Plymouth Sangha. A member of the Jewish community will speak last. The words will be relatively brief. There will be silences in between – a time to reflect. The ceremony will be quite short, but none the less meaningful for that. The Deputy Lady Mayoress will lay flowers at the foot of the tree.

Please come if you possibly can. You may wish to travel on the Cremyll ferry. The ferry leaving Plymouth at 12.15 p.m. will get you there just in time but you might prefer to take the one before that at 11.45 a.m. Allow time to park. There are not many spaces in the Cremyll car park. You might like to go to Devil’s Point and walk back.

There will also be an evening meeting for Holocaust Memorial Day. Details available soon.

We are planning for some schools representation at both events. Holocaust Memorial Day is the day on which Auschwitz was liberated.

Background material on the Day may be found on the website at:www.hmd.org.uk This year’s theme is ‘Speak up, speak out!’ If you have any questions please contact Rev. Peter Chave (01752 771490) regarding the ceremony at Mount Edgcumbe and Jonathan Marshall at the Centre (01752 254438) regarding the evening event.

Robert Clary, entertainer, actor and Holocaust survivor wrote: ‘I beg the next generation not to do what people have done for centuries – hate others because of their skin, shape of their eyes, or religious preference. I know what hatred does. I barely escaped what hatred does’.