Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated each year on or around 27 January. This is the date on which the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in 1945.
About Holocaust Memorial Day
Established on 27 January 2000, Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) was created when representatives from 46 governments around the world (including the UK and Irish governments) committed to preserving the memory of those who had lost their lives during the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.
Since 2001, HMD has been observed in the UK with a UK Commemorative Ceremony and participation from thousands of organisations from across the UK marking HMD each year.
Holocaust Education Ireland organise the national commemoration event in Ireland in January every year. Further information is available at Holocaust Education Ireland.
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) is the charity established and funded by the UK Government to promote and support HMD in the UK. HMDT lead on both the national commemoration event and a series of regional events, including one in Belfast with support from the Executive Office and Belfast City Council, in co-operation with a Steering Group which includes representatives the local Jewish community. Other local Councils also deliver HMD events. Belfast first marked HMD in 2002 with a regional commemoration held at the Waterfront Hall.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2026
The main regional HMD commemoration is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 20 January 2026 in Belfast. The 2026 theme, Bridging the Generations, will focus on preserving survivors’ legacies and passing on their testimonies to younger people.
Further information on this year’s theme and information and resources on how you can mark HMD is available on the HMDT website below:
Holocaust Memorial Day 2025
2025 marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp complex, and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.
The theme of HMD 2025, ‘For a better future’, highlighted how we must become the generations who carry forward the legacy of the witnesses, remember those who were murdered and challenge those who would distort or deny the past, or who discriminate and persecute today.
Photograph (from left to right): Lord Mayor of Belfast, Lu Lawrence - daughter of Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper, dFM Emma Little-Pengelly, Fleur Anderson MP on behalf on the Secretary of State, Munira Subašić - President of the Mothers of Srebrenica, FM Michelle O’Neill, Rabbi David Kale, Shirley Lennon – HMDT, and Paul Lopez-Salzedo – HMDT.
The Commemoration event in Belfast, hosted by The Executive Office in conjunction with the HMD Trust and Belfast City Council, heard from Holocaust survivor Peter Lantos, who was unable to make the event due to travel disruption caused by the weather. He spoke movingly in a pre-recorded video about the horrors he faced during Nazi rule.
To read more about the event please click here: Holocaust Memorial Day 2025: For a better future | The Executive Office
Please click the link below to watch the event and read more about HMD 2025: Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | Northern Ireland marks Holocaust Memorial Day 2025
Light the Darkness
Each year, at 8pm on 27 January people from across the country, from all communities, place a lit candle safely in their windows to remember those who were murdered in genocide; to reflect on how the lessons of the past can inform our lives today and help ensure that everyone works together to create a safer, better future.
Further information is available at:
Photograph: Parliament Buildings lit up in purple to commemorate HMD “Light the Darkness” on 27 January 2025.
Remembering Srebrenica
The genocide at Srebrenica, Bosnia is described by the United Nations as “the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.” Click here to learn about the massacre and the lessons from Srebrenica:
Holocaust Memorial Day 2020
The 2020 HMD commemoration was a significant milestone as it marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945 and the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia in 1995.
The theme for the 2020 commemoration was ‘Stand Together’.
The regional commemoration took place at Belfast City Hall on the evening of Monday 27 January 2020.
Keynote speaker at the event was Holocaust survivor Tomáš (Tomi) Reichental, who along with his family was held in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from 1944 – 1945, until it was liberated by British troops.
Originally from Czechoslovakia, Tomi is one of three Holocaust survivors currently living in Ireland. He regularly gives talks in schools, colleges and at various other events with the aim of educating people about what happened during the Holocaust so the people who died are remembered, and lessons are learned so it never happens again.
The 2020 regional commemoration - hosted by The Executive Office in conjunction with Belfast City Council and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust - was attended by Junior Ministers Declan Kearney and Gordon Lyons. It also featured poetry readings by Michael Longley and Maureen Boyle, as well as a performance by Lagan College Choir.
View the video of the event below:
For more information about the annual regional commemoration email: hmd@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk or call the HMD organising team on 028 3751 5033.
Public events
As part of the build-up to the regional Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, TEO brought two survivors of the Holocaust and one from the Bosnian Genocide to Northern Ireland to share their personal and highly poignant stories about escape and survival.
Over two weeks in October, Safet Vukalić, Tomi Reichental and Susan Pollack MBE, shared their experiences with community groups, prisoners and thousands of school children, throughout NI.
Safet, a Bosnian Muslim, described how following the outbreak of the Bosnian War in 1992, he survived ethnic cleansing in Prijedor, Bosnia and how his father and brother were imprisoned by the Bosnian Serb army in concentration camps.
Tomi told gripped audiences how as a child in living in the Nazi regime in Slovakia, he was captured along with his brother, mother and grandmother and taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944 where he remained until liberation in 1945.
Born in Hungary in 1930, Susan spoke about how her family were ordered from their home and eventually taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau by cattle truck.
She later learned her mother had been sent directly to the gas chambers while she was selected to work at the camp for 10 weeks. After being sent to Germany to work as a slave labourer in an armaments factory, she also ended up in Bergen-Belsen.
Following liberation in 1945, Susan was sent to Sweden to recover from illness before moving to Canada. She now lives in London and regularly shares her story in schools across the UK.
Tomi and Susan only met for the first time during their visitSrebrenica: Remembering the Genocide to the synagogue in Belfast in October 2019.
The pair met members of Northern Ireland's Jewish community and spoke to students about their experiences.
Tomi and Susan believe it is vitally important that everyone - particularly young people - hears about the terrible events that occurred during the Second World War.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2019
A Holocaust Memorial Day event was held in Belfast City Hall on 24 January 2019 to mark 74 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The event was hosted by The Executive Office in collaboration with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and Belfast City Council.
A link to the video of the commemoration event can be accessed below:
Further information
Further information is available from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), a charity which promotes and supports Holocaust Memorial Day; or the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland which aims to teach about the Holocaust and its consequences.
Please click the link s below to learn more about previous content:
Contact us
If you have any queries regarding HMD, you can contact us via the email below: