Thursday 18 January 2024
Holocaust Memorial Day will be marked in Guernsey on Saturday 27 January.
Wreaths will be laid at the memorials on White Rock in a short ceremony at 1pm and there will be a commemorative gathering at the Princess Royal Centre for the Performing Arts at 5pm, lasting no more than an hour, that remembers the victims of the Holocaust and other acts of genocide both in Guernsey and around the world. Both events are open to all islanders.
The commemoration will be led by the Very Reverend Tim Barker with Sabit Jakupović MBE as the guest speaker. Sabit arrived in the UK from Bosnia in 1992 as part of a group of 68 people who were selected by the International Red Cross, as they needed immediate hospital care. Sabit is a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) who had been imprisoned for 120 days in two different Serbian concentration camps, one of which was the notorious Omarska camp.
Sabit began rebuilding his life in the UK and in 2006, he graduated from university and now works for Hertfordshire County Council. Sabit will share his story of his experience in those concentration camps.
During the gathering, Guernsey Music Service Year 6 pupil Solomon Bearder will play a Handel Aria on the cello and there will be spoken word from students from The Guernsey Institute's Performing Arts course, enabling those present to reflect on the significance of Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Very Reverend Tim Barker said:
'The States of Guernsey's commitment to the observation of Holocaust Memorial Day at the end of January remains significant. Not only do we remember the unique horror of the Holocaust in the 1940s, but we remember also the all-too-many other atrocities across the world that innocent people have faced in the years since then.
'With the recent rise in tension in the Balkans, I look forward to meeting Sabit Jakupović and hearing what he has to say to us about the Bosnian genocide in the 1990s.
'I encourage Guernsey people to join us at White Rock, for a short ceremony and to come to the early evening event where we can reflect together and renew our commitment to do what we can to work for peace and justice across the world.'
