Falinge Park pupils take part in community service marking Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated on 27 January every year

Pupils from Falinge Park High School took part in a service in Manchester for Holocaust Memorial Day (Thursday 26 January).

Faith and community leaders from across Greater Manchester joined the service at Manchester Hall, which was livestreamed through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter on Thursday (26 January).

The service included readings from speakers including Holocaust survivor Ruth Lachs and the pupils from Falinge Park, which is a Beacon school for Holocaust Education.

There were performances from Cantor Charles Chait, as well as readings and prayers, and a minute’s silence led by Rabbi Daniel Walker from Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation.

The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations was ‘Ordinary People’, in acknowledgement of the fact that ordinary people have been perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers, witnesses, and victims.

The theme also prompts us to consider how ordinary people might be able to play a bigger role in challenging prejudice and hatred today.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: "Greater Manchester’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day service provides an opportunity for us all to reflect and remember the victims of the Holocaust, and all those whose lives were lost to genocide or changed irrevocably by atrocities around the world. I want to thank Ruth Lachs, members of our Jewish community, and others from across the city-region who joined us for this year’s service.

“Greater Manchester has a proud history of standing in defiance of hatred, and in solidarity with all those facing persecution and oppression. This is not just who we are, it’s what we do – and what we must continue to do whenever we encounter racism or any form of prejudice.”