27 January 2020

Aberdeenshire Council marks Holocaust Memorial Day

Young people from two Aberdeenshire secondary schools speaking movingly about their experiences of visiting Auschwitz was just one of the ways Aberdeenshire Council commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust.

Pupils from Inverurie Academy showed those attending a remembrance event at Aberdeenshire Council’s Woodhill House headquarters flame artwork designs containing messages of tolerance as well as mentioning the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day, which took place today (Monday, January 27), this year – Stand Together.

Maria Wotherspoon, Soraya Hossainpour and Emily Baird, S5 Mearns Academy pupils along with S6 pupils Westhill Academy Ieuan Harries and James Marriner, gave presentations on their visiti to Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of liberation of the camp.

Cllr Ross Cassie welcomed guests and spoke passionately about the annual memorial day. He explained that this year also sees the commemoration of 25 years since the genocide in Srebrenica during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. A video of a survivor returning to the village he used to live was shown to those in attendance.

Cllr Cassie said: “Doing nothing we are allowing the potential of genocide to thrive. We must not do nothing.”

Those attending were invited to participate in a discussion, they were also informed about a wishing tree in which poster cards expressing their thoughts could be added to it.

Scented candles made by pupils from Inverurie Academy symbolising remembrance and artwork were on display in Woodhill House following the commemoration.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place every year on January 27 in the United Kingdom. It is dedicated to the remembrance of those who suffered in the Holocaust as well as subsequent genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur. For more information please visit http://www.hmd.org.uk