Holocaust Memorial Day 2026, this year falls on Tuesday 27th of January. To mark the occasion there’ll be a gathering at the Friends Meeting House, Eastcott Hill, SN1 3JF.
It’s expected that the gathering will last one hour and will rovide time for remembrance, reflection, readings, and hope.
The theme
Every year, this occasion has a theme and 2026 is no exception and so this year’s theme is Bridging Generations. It’s a reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn’t end with the survivors – it lives on through their children, their grandchildren, and through us all.
Also, Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity to reflect, not only on the large-scale persecution and killings of the European Holocaust in the early 1940s, but also other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Armenia, Bosnia, Myanmar, Darfur, Xingjang, and, of course, the terrible deaths and sufferings right now in eastern Europe, and also elsewhere in our one and only so-called civilized world.
Would you like to contribute?
Anyone with appropriate personal stories, thoughts, or readings, is welcome to speak or read at the gathering. If this is you, please let Matt Holland know (see email below) before the 27th if at all possible.
Following the hour together, there will be a chance to chat and to enjoy light refreshments provided at the venue by kind Friends.
For further information please contact: matt@lowershawfarm.co.uk
Background
Holocaust Memorial Day was first marked nationally in the UK in 2001. It’s now established as an annual day of remembrance. Local authorities, faith and community groups, and individuals were asked to take a lead in developing local memorial events and appropriate activities. Swindon decided to mark this day and has done so every year of this century.
The date, 27 January, marks the 1945 liberation day of the Auschwitz concentration camps.
This day is also an opportunity to remember and reflect on many other human rights tragedies around the world, including persecution and wars, past and present. It aims to help raise awareness among people of all ages and backgrounds.
You can find further information and a more national perspective about Holocaust Memorial Day at www.hmd.org.uk
