inter-religious
holocaust memorial day
Front page photo:
Yakir Zur/Ifaproject,
shutterstock.com/HomeStudio
Resources for 2012
27 January 2012These have been produced by the Council for Christians and Jews
in consultation with CTBI.
Resources and Christian Order of Service for Holocaust Memorial Events 2012 (PDF, 700k)
(For help downloading, please see the download guide)
HMD Guidelines for Preachers (PDF, 37k)
They Came for Me
A Soundscape from Auschwitz
Background to Holocaust Memorial Day
One of the most painful realities for European Christians to deal with is the past complicity of many Christians and churches in the Nazis' attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. A long history of Christian anti-Semitism that fed into numerous persecutions of the Jews, up to and including the Holocaust/Shoah, has also been acknowledged.
Christians and churches can engage with the issues relating to the Nazis Holocaust, and relations with the Jewish community, in numerous ways.
The Roman Catholic Church addresses Jewish-Christian Relations through the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews
has important documents that are invaluable resources.
The Council of Christians and Jews, the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge
and the Beth Shalom Centre
all provide resources and opportunities for further study and reflection.
In 2002, the United Kingdom Government set up Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January each year) which remembers the suffering of the Holocaust/Shoah and other Holocausts (for example in Cambodia and Rwanda). The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
provides resources for the day itself, as well as general material. They also offer a regular email-based newsletter.