Enfield’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration will go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic with an on-line event on 27 January.
The centrepiece of this year’s event is a new documentary commissioned by Enfield Council called ‘Be The Light’. The film reflects on the importance of remembering the Holocaust and the other genocides since 1945 and how people can ‘be the light in the darkness’.
Part of the documentary relates the stories of two young children who found refuge in Enfield following the Nazi persecution of Jewish people in Germany and Austria in the late 1930’s - Greta Glauber and Gerald Granston - a proud Enfield resident who has shared his experiences with various audiences both nationally and internationally to help people understand the impact and horror of the Holocaust.
The event will also feature pre-recorded contributions from local religious and civic dignitaries and will be broadcast on the Council’s YouTube channel from 7pm on Wednesday 27 January. You can access and bookmark the event here.
The Council has also worked with the Enfield Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education and the Religious Education Today group to produce a new expanded lesson pack to mark this year’s events. This will provide a resource for Year 10 pupils at Enfield’s secondary schools to have extra lessons on the issues relating to Holocaust Memorial Day as part of their studies.
Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Cohesion, Cllr Nneka Keazor, said: “I am very excited by the new approach we have taken this year to mark this important annual commemorative event and go ‘on-line’ for the very first time.
“The Council has taken the challenge presented by the coronavirus pandemic and created an event that will allow even more people to access our Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration this year by logging in and watching from the comfort of their own home. In times like these the central message of being a light in the darkness is one that resonates with us all as we seek to create a fairer and more tolerant society.”