This morning [Friday 27 January 2023] television personality and barrister, Robert Rinder, was a guest speaker at a special service to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day at Exeter Cathedral.
Rinder was joined by psychologist, Bernie Graham, to give a 45-minute talk on the Holocaust Memorial Trust’s theme of ‘Ordinary People.’ In Rinder’s BBC One documentary series, My Family, The Holocaust and Me, both men explore the historical impact of the Holocaust on their families and on their own roles as second-generation survivors. In his speech Rinder called on the congregation to reject prejudice and reflected on the theme of love and forgiveness among survivors.
The service was attended over 600 people, including local representatives of the Jewish, Islamic, Gypsy, Roma and diverse communities, as well as school pupils who all lit candles to remember victims of genocide. The Lord Mayor of Exeter, Chairman of Devon County Council, and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Devon were also at the event which was organised in partnership with religious education and collective worship advisors SACRE Devon, Exeter City Council, Devon County Council and the Diocese of Exeter, the Church of England in Devon.
Holocaust Memorial Day is an international day of remembrance, marking the anniversary of the Second World War liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp. As well as remembering the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and millions of others from minority groups killed under Nazi persecution, Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers more recent genocides, including those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur in Sudan.