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Nine year old Martha Blend excaped from Austria on the Kindertransport in 1938, leaving her parents behind. Here she describes her life in Austria, the journey to the UK, and the fate of her family left behind.

Baronita Adam is a member of the Roma community. Through a project with the Roma Support Group, she has spoken about the prejudice she has faced in her lifetime, and shared her mother’s memories of being targeted by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp.

This document has been produced by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) to provide guidance, help and support to Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) activity organisers ahead of HMD 2025. This year marks 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 ongoing war in Israel and Gaza, and the ferocity of violence and displacement in Sudan, highlight the continued need for vigilance, education and commemoration.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch played the cello in the orchestra at Auschwitz, surviving for nearly a year. Here she describes her wartime experiences, surviving the Holocaust, and being liberated from the horrendous conditions at Bergen-Belsen.

In this podcast we speak to Professor Gregory Woods, Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies at Nottingham Trent University author of the introduction to Pierre Seel’s testimony.

Europe’s Roma and Sinti people (often labelled as ‘Gypsies’ historically) were targeted by the Nazis for total destruction.

In May 1939 the SS St Louis left the port of Hamburg in Germany and set sail for Havana in Cuba. On board were 937 Jewish passengers. They were German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution and hoping to start new lives. They planned to seek asylum in Cuba. This 2011 education case study tells the story of the passengers and Captain Gustav Schroeder.

Climate change is having an enormous impact on our world, changing it profoundly. The connection to mass violence and atrocities produces some of its most dangerous effects. Detmer Kremer, Policy and Communications Coordinator at Protection Approaches, visited us at the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust recently. He shared learnings from Protection Approaches’ work exploring the impact of climate change on identity-based violence, and gave advice on what we can all do to help prevent it.

Ladislaus Löb was born in Romania. At the age of 11 he was sent to Bergen-Belsen. He survived the Holocaust but lost the majority of his family.

Denise Uwimana lost many of her relatives in the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She survived, but faced a difficult journey to forgive her neighbours who had murdered her family and stolen from her home. Hers is an inspiring story of courage, forgiveness and reconciliation.