27 January 2011
Lewisham College commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day
Lewisham College commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day in the quad
at Lewisham Way with a short ceremony led by Kieren McIntosh of
Engagement and Support. Holocaust Memorial Day, held on 27 January
annually to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz and
Birkenau concentration camps, seeks to use the memory of the
horrors of the Second World War, the Holocaust, and genocides
around the world to challenge people to fight to prevent another
occurrence ever happening again. "This is about reflection and
using the memory of this human tragedy to inspire people to stand
up for justice and what is right," Kieren said.
After a brief discussion of the Holocaust, the horrific
extermination of six million Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, political
dissidents, and the mentally and physically disabled, poems were
read about the Holocaust and a moment's silence was held.
Staff and students were then invited to place their lighted candles
on the Lewisham College sculpture as well as pebbles, in tribute to
the Jewish tradition of placing pebbles on the graves of the dead
in order to remind loved ones that they have been visited.