UCL marks Holocaust Memorial Day 2025

23 January 2025

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) takes place every year on 27 January. Find out about UCL events marking the day including a Lunch Hour Lecture, as well as key resources, broadcasts and further information.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is an annual, global day of observance held in remembrance of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and its collaborators during the Holocaust, alongside millions of others killed under Nazi persecution and during later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

HMD invites us all to remember and honour the victims and survivors of genocide, and calls on people and governments around the world to reaffirm our commitment to preventing such atrocities from happening in the future.

2025’s theme is ‘For a better future’. 80 years on from the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and 30 years on from the genocide in Bosnia, prejudice and hostility (including antisemitism and Islamophobia) continue to flourish in our society, creating division and conflict and leaving people and communities feeling vulnerable. How can we learn from the past to create a better future?

A range of activities are taking place at UCL to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. On 27 January the Portico building will be lit in purple, and UCL will be taking part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s #LightTheDarkness campaign on social media – use the hashtags #HolocaustMemorialDay and #LightTheDarkness.

Our current list of scheduled events is below, alongside key resources around Holocaust education. If you are hosting a UCL event for Holocaust Memorial Day that you’d like to add to this page, get in touch with us here.

Events

23 January, 7pm: London Universities HMD event

Join university students across London as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, and hear the testimony of Holocaust survivor, Ivan Shaw BEM. You can attend online or in person – find out more and register.

29 January, 1–2pm: Lunch Hour Lecture | Voicing the Destruction of European Jewry: Yiddish and the Holocaust

In this talk, Dr Sonia Gollance will explain what is Yiddish, how it helps us understand prewar Jewish civilisation and the vital significance of Yiddish for Holocaust research and commemoration. Sign up to the Lunch Hour Lecture.

25 February, 6–8pm: Yiddish Choices: Before, During, and After the Holocaust

Dr Sonia Gollance will host a lecture by Anita Norich to mark HMD, in cooperation with the UCL Institute for Jewish Studies and the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies. Sign up to attend Yiddish Choices: Before, During, and After the Holocaust.

Recordings and resources

23 January: Songs of Auschwitz (broadcast)

Professor Shirli Gilbert (UCL Hebrew & Jewish Studies) features in this new documentary marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 that uncovers a story of hope, music and survival from Auschwitz. Listen on BBC iPlayer.

Ruth-Anne Lenga reflects on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Holocaust Memorial Day this year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi killing site and concentration camp complex. Professor Ruth-Anne Lenga (UCL Centre for Holocaust Education) reflects on this day and its lasting legacy.

Previous Lunch Hour Lectures for Holocaust Memorial Day

Telling the Story (2024): Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich MBE and Ruth-Anne Lenga of UCL’s Centre for Holocaust Education in conversation with Dr Michael Spence, UCL.
Together & apart: Remembering Jewish Ukraine in the context of empire and war (2023), delivered by Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies at UCL SSEES.

The valuable contribution Citizenship education can make to learning about the Holocaust

Rebecca Hale and Corey Soper of the Centre for Holocaust Education present findings from a national study exploring teaching and learning about the Holocaust.