A Holocaust survivor has said he believes communities in Northern Ireland have worked hard to protect “their precious and fragile freedom and peace”.
At an event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in Belfast on Tuesday, Dr Alfred Garwood spoke movingly about the collective trauma felt by survivors after their freedoms were stripped away.
Almost 300 people gathered at Belfast City Hall to remember the millions of victims and survivors of the Holocaust and those impacted by the horrors of more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
This year’s theme of the annual commemoration was ‘Fragility of Freedom’ and aimed to highlight “how delicate freedom is while remembering that despite this, in every genocide there are those who risk their own freedom to help others, to preserve others’ freedom or to stand up to the perpetrator regime”.
The event was hosted by The Executive Office in conjunction with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and Belfast City Council and attended by members of the local Jewish community and representatives of other faith groups and minority ethnic communities.
Dr Garwood, who along with his family was interned at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from 1943-1945, said: “I feel honoured and humbled to be asked to speak in Belfast for Holocaust Memorial Day.
“Being a Holocaust Survivor, later a physician, a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist, having endured the troubled times of the Second World War and the Holocaust it has taught me to recognise the suffering of communities who have endured generations of conflict.
“I believe the Northern Ireland community have shown great courage and creativity in working towards, maintaining and protecting their precious and fragile freedom and peace.”
Gareth Johnston from the Executive Office said: “Holocaust Memorial Day reminds us that we cannot take our freedoms for granted - that we all have a responsibility to do what we can to strengthen freedoms in our society and beyond by making a stand against hate, intolerance and prejudice”.
