Snowdrops planted to remember Holocaust

Members of ‘Warwick Volunteers’ gathered on Friday morning to plant snowdrops commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th – the anniversary of the date of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Despite it being a chilly morning, several volunteers turned out in their warm coats and wellies and planted around five hundred bulbs in the meadow near Gibbet Hill Road by Tocil Lakes. The hope is that the snowdrops will flower this year and every year at around the time of the national commemoration.

This year sees Coventry hosting the National Holocaust Memorial Day with 110,000 snowdrops being planted across the city, one for every one hundred people who died during the Holocaust.

It is one of a number of activities taking place across the city. Other events include an Anne Frank exhibition in the city’s cathedral and the Stand up to Hatred Walk taking place outside the Belgrade Theatre on Saturday afternoon.

Jamie Darwen, Warwick Volunteers’ Project Manager, said, “I’m very pleased that Warwick Volunteers are able to support Holocaust Memorial Day.

“Sometimes it can feel as if the University is disconnected from Coventry but it is great that we can support the city in hosting this event.”

Jenny Coy, a first-year Classics student, added that although she’d never done any volunteering with Warwick Volunteers before, the project had encouraged her to get more involved in the future.

Holocaust Memorial Day is an international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides. All in all, 11 million men, women and children lost their lives under Hitler’s Nazi rule.