Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated internationally on 27th January each year. This date was chosen as it is the anniversary of the day in 1945 on which the Soviet Army liberated the largest Nazi concentration camp – Auschwitz-Birkenau. 
Each year, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust urges everyone in the UK to pause and reflect on what can happen when racism, prejudice and exclusionary behaviour are left unchecked. On HMD we take the time to see how the lessons of the past can play a part in our communities today. The theme for HMD 2010 is The Legacy of Hope.
There are various events organised to mark HMD 2010 and one of the most striking is the 6 million + installation at Ripon Cathedral. Local secondary schools, colleges and supporters across the country and Kirklees Museums & Galleries, based in West Yorkshire, collected over 6 million buttons to illustrate the industrial scale of the Holocaust that took place during WWII. The '+' refers to Jewish and non-Jewish individuals who were never counted, as well as people who have died across the world in conflicts and genocides since the Second World War.
My post for HMD 2009 along with some of the pictures I took at Yad Vashem can be found here.
The Archbishop of Canterbury's HMD 2010 statement: The Legacy of Hope.
A Prayer said on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Anne Frank:
God, you created us all in your own likeness.
We thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in your world.
Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellow feeling and understanding;
show us your presence in those most different from us, so that in all our relationships,
both by what we have in common and by things in which we differ,
we may come to know you more fully in your creation;
for you are Father, Son and Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.
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