Candle-lit vigil marks Holocaust Memorial Day

Warwick students assembled on the Piazza last Friday to mark Holocaust Memorial Day with a candle-lit vigil.

Despite the drizzle, around thirty people gathered to remember and reflect on not only the Holocaust, but also the horrific catalogue of genocides currently ongoing elsewhere in the world.

Warwick’s vigil was one of many ceremonies held commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27 1945 by Soviet forces.

Students’ Union President Leo Boe highlighted the dangers of discrimination, saying, “When you ridicule or question someone’s identity, you are questioning their existence.” His sentiments reflected this year’s theme, ‘Speak Up, Speak out’, emphasising the collective responsibility of the student body, and of society in general, to remain vigilant against prejudice and intolerance.

Members of Warwick’s Jewish-Israeli society read out a poem of resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh, who was captured parachuting into what was Yugoslavia with the intention of saving Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. She was imprisoned, tortured, and finally executed by Nazi forces. The poem was then followed by a minute’s silence.

Some students worried that the memorial would not include the persecution of other groups, such as gypsies, gay men, lesbians, those with disabilities and political dissenters. However, the vigil was intended to be inclusive, and also referenced genocides in countries such as the Congo and Darfur. Ethan Dabush, President of the Jewish-Israeli society, was very encouraged to see such a diverse cultural mix of people at the vigil.

Students’ Union Welfare officer Izzy John said “There is still genocide ongoing in many places around the world, it is clear that the lessons we learned from the Holocaust are far from over. Warwick has a very diverse international community, some of our students will be from countries affected by genocide, some of our Jewish students will have ancestors who were directly affected by the Holocaust.”