Holocaust Memorial Day 2011

One of my most powerful and moving experiences in recent years was a visit I made in December 2008 to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. I have many pictures taken that day but I don’t really need to look at them as the images from the visit are all too vivid in my mind.

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. You can light a virtual candle at the HMD website. This year the theme is Untold Stories. HMD remembers not only the Holocaust but other genocides including Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

Last year I posted this prayer and it seemed appropriate to post it again today.

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

My previous posts for HMD are 2009, 2010.

Update: The Archbishop of Canterbury's HMD 2011 statement: Untold Stories.