Scotland comes together online to mark HMD 2021
Scotland’s Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2021 Ceremony moves online for the first time ever.
Image: Edinburgh Castle lights up in purple to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2021. Photo Credit: Blue Sky Photography
Lev Atlas (principal viola – Scottish Opera Orchestra / Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) lit and a candle and performed a short violin solo – a new piece of music based on a Russian Gypsy folk melody. The piece was commissioned from and composed by renowned Gypsy composer and violinist Oleg Ponomarev, to commemorate Sinti and Roma people who perished in the Holocaust.
The ceremony featured testimonies from Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich MBE, as well as the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of survivors from subsequent genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia.
There was a message from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Aileen Campbell.
The fully virtual ceremony was aimed at Scottish secondary school pupils, with the programme and transcripts of the testimonies available on the Interfaith Scotland website to help teachers plan lessons.
Watch the ceremony below:
The online ceremony is organised by Interfaith Scotland and sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and The Scottish Government.