On Friday 27 January, we will hold a special service for Holocaust Memorial Day to remember the victims of genocide. The service will take place in the Peace Garden in the Abbey Gardens at 10.30 am.

The theme for 2023’s Holocaust Memorial Day is Ordinary People. Ordinary people were perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers, witnesses – and ordinary people were victims. During the service, we remember the Holocaust and other genocides, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Joining the Cathedral for the service will be local schools Guildhall Feoffment and County High School who will contribute readings and music. As well as the special service at 10.30 am, the Cathedral will be open throughout the day with areas set aside for reflection and contemplation.

Revd Canon Matthew Vernon said, “We hold an annual service for Holocaust Memorial Day because it’s important to reflect on how injustice affects people throughout generations. Genocide continues to reverberate today, and we should all feel the call to challenge discrimination in our time.”

A week prior to Holocaust Memorial Day, on Saturday 21 January, the Cathedral will welcome Diana Cook for ‘They Left No Footprint – A Holocaust Survivor’s Story’. Diana’s mother, Margot Pogorzelski Hodge escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany a few weeks before war broke out. After Margot’s death in 2014, Diana wanted to ensure Margot’s story was told and retold to as wide an audience as possible. Using family photos and voiced extracts from a brief memoir Margot wrote describing her childhood and early adult life, Diana describes how Margot’s idyllic childhood changed dramatically after the rise of the Nazi party. She will explore the echoes of the past that resonate today and how history are being repeated all over the world, causing the mass movement of people.

You can find out more about Holocaust Memorial Day here.

Book tickets to They Left No Footprint – A Holocaust Survivor’s Story here.