This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday January 27 is ‘The power of words’.

This January, at around 8,000 events across the country, hundreds of thousands of people will gather to reflect on the power of words, and how they were used in the Holocaust and subsequent genocides, in propaganda to incite hatred, in slogans written in resistance, and in memoirs to record survivors’ experiences.

Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembering the atrocities of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, but also about finding ways to make sure they can never happen again. 

Recognising the power our words have is an important first step. 

On Holocaust Memorial Day I ask you to choose to use your words for good.

For more information on how you can get involved with this year’s events, go to www.hmd.org.uk

OLIVIA MARKS-WOLDMAN

Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust