Thousands of people across the UK will mark Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) on 27 January 2009, which this year takes as its theme 'Stand up to Hatred'. HMD falls on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp, and commemorates all the victims of Nazi persecution and those oppressed in subsequent genocides.

The 'Stand up to Hatred' theme links the past to the present; the Holocaust took the lives of approximately 11 million men, women and children, and many more millions have been killed in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and today in Darfur. Genocide is the result of state-sponsored hatred, and, although the UK today is not Nazi occupied Europe in the mid-20th century, hate crime here is on the increase.

Last year Journal reporter Sam Wood travelled to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp near Krakow in Poland, along with 200 school children from the North East. Today, Holocaust Memorial Day, he talks about the deeply moving effect the experience had on him and why we should never forget.

PILES of hair, piles of suitcases, piles of glasses and memories.

That is all that remains of more than six million Jews killed at the dozens of extermination camps dotted around Europe in the 1940s.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and, as we move further from the events, the calls grow louder for us to stop marking the past in such a way, to let Auschwitz and the other camps fall into disrepair and eventually to crumble away.

But I don't belive that should allowed to happen. The death camps and the Memorial Day itself are vital for our future.

First published on Journal Live, the website of the Newcastle Journal

First published in the Liverpool ECHO on January 27, 2009

LIVERPOOL was remembering the horrors of the Holocaust today with a special ceremony in the city.

The service, to make sure the Holocaust and all victims of genocide are not forgotten, was due to take place at 2pm in St John's Gardens behind St George's Hall.

Members of the Jewish community, faith leaders, Liverpool's lord mayor, schoolchildren and civic guests will unite in prayer, lay flowers and observe a one-minute silence to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

This article appeared in the Western Mail on January 27, 2009

In Wrexham, pupils at St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High School have been involved with special assemblies about the Holocaust.

Three Year 11 pupils, of different faith groups, told the Western Mail, how the Holocaust
had impacted on their awareness of history, and was helping to shape their views on the future of society in Wales.

Fifteen year-old Alex, a Catholic, said: "I'm aware of the Holocaust through lessons and assemblies in school.

This article appeared in the Western Mail on January 27, 2009

HOLOCAUST survivors and their families have joined together to mark today's Holocaust Memorial Day and remember the millions of people murdered by the Nazis.

The annual event takes place on January 27th - the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the largest Nazi concentration camp.

More than 800 people, including those who have suffered genocide in other countries, held a minute's silence at the national commemoration for Holocaust Memorial Day in Coventry yesterday.

Published in the Huddersfield Examiner on January 27, 2009

THEY sit in the front room of their semi-detached home in a quiet Elland cul-de-sac and Ibi and Val Ginsburg seem like any other pensioner couple, quietly enjoying their retirement.

But the pair are part of the dwindling band of survivors from the greatest crime in the history of humanity.

Ibi, 84, and Val, 86, came through the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Nazi Holocaust - but both lost nearly their entire families in the mass killing.

They are keen supporters of Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place today and aims to educate young people about human rights abuses, both past and present, and to encourage greater tolerance.

Val said: "I've had my bellyful of hatred. I can tell you the consequences of prejudice."
Waldemar Ginsburg - known as Val - was born in 1922 and grew up in Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania at the time.

HUNDREDS of people marched through the centre of Coventry yesterday to remember generations of holocaust victims and to Stand Up To Hatred.

The walk from the Belgrade Theatre to the ruins of the Old Cathedral was part of a weekend of special events held to in the city to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Stand up to hatred is the theme for this year's Holocaust Memorial Day, with a stark reminder that evil will prosper when good people sit back and do nothing.

Sir Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, speaking at the national commemoration in Coventry, reminded his audience that Hitler was allowed to get away with genocide because restrictions on the movement of Jews were introduced gradually from 1933 onwards.

Who protested? Almost no one. The tragedy is that if people had protested, it would have made a difference, he added.

BIRMINGHAM'S political and religious leaders were joined by campaigners at a moving ceremony remembering those who lost their lives in the Nazi Holocaust.

Birmingham Town Hall was packed as a succession of speakers told how the hatred shown by leaders of wartime Germany had echoes in todays attitudes towards minority groups.