Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day (HMD)

In January, Southampton will mark the UK’s national Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day (HMD) with a commemorative event organised by the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations (University of Southampton) in collaboration with Solent University on behalf of the city.

This is a free event and all are welcome to attend.

Event Programme

This year, the Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day event will mark the 30th Anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. On behalf of the city, the University of Southampton and Solent University are proud to welcome Marie-Chantal Uwamahoro, a survivor of those events to give her testimony to attendees. Students from Solent University will bring their thought and creativity to a reading, which this year will consist of extracts from the letters and diaries of Else Behrend-Rosenfeld. Else Behrend was a German Christian - married to a German Jew, Siegfried Rosenfeld - who joined the Jewish community in Munich in the 1930s as a gesture of solidarity and remained in Germany throughout the war, coming to Britain in the post-war period.

There will also be reflections from students from Barton Peveril Sixth Form College. Members of the college recently took part in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s (HET) Lessons from Auschwitz programme and will discuss their experience of visiting the sites as well as what they have learnt from a recent visit by the Parkes Institute to their college.