Hundreds gather at annual service in Leeds to remember the Holocaust

Yesterday the city gathered to remember the atrocities and the six million men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust along with the millions of others that were killed under Nazi persecution, as well as the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

It became standing room only inside the grand, opulent and elegant main room at the town hall - a stark contrast to the images playing on a big screen that showed the bleak, hopeless and sinister scenes of concentration camps.

The service was set to start at 2pm and this year's theme of Standing Together was literal as still more and more people filed into the town hall to show the support the city has the Holocaust, its survivors and the message that leaves today.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Coun Eileen Taylor opened the programme.

She said: "During my time as Lord Mayor I have visited communities across out city. I have been impressed and moved by the work that has taken place to bring together young and old people, people of different faiths and ethnic groups. We are very lucky to live in a city with so much diversity. Now, more than ever, it is important that all the communities are able to live together in peace."

Coun Taylor lit a candle prior to a performance by the Opera North Youth Chorus which, over the last few months, had been working on a new piece of work that explore how genocidal regimes fracture societies and how to challenge these tactics.

Dr James Smith CBE, life president of the National Holocaust Centre, was the keynote speaker and in his address he referred to the White Rose underground movement that had been started in 1942 by a group of German medical students who were horrified by what the country was doing. The following year the three leaders were betrayed and arrested. A week later they were beheaded.

He also spoke of the German women who were married to Jewish men and refused to divorce them and fought for their freedom and also those who managed to flee and start a new life in Leeds.

He appealed for people to avoid junk media that incites hate and fake news and to also strengthen empathy.

Dr Smith said: "This is a lesson for our time. When you don't call out anti-semitism, racism or any form of injustice - you are part of the problem. Jews should not be alone in persisting against anti-semitism, muslims should not be alone, black people should not be alone against institutionalised racism, Asians, gays, travellers should not be alone in a hostile environment. To stop hate destruction we must stand together."

Seven special guests lit candles including 96-year-old Leeds resident Iby Knill who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and was liberated on a death march.

MP Fabian Hamilton, who attends the service each year, said that this year there was extra significance.

He said: "Earlier this month, Leeds lost one of its last survivors of the Holocaust. Heinz Skyte died just six weeks before his 100th birthday. Heinz was a truly remarkable man, who fled Nazi Germany in 1938 during Kristallnacht. I was proud to pay tribute to Heinz in the House of Commons on Thursday during the Holocaust Memorial Day debate.

"Holocaust Memorial Day takes on a new significance this year as it also marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Through such valuable organisations, as the Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre, which documented Heinz’s story alongside those of other Leeds-based Holocaust survivors, we have a powerful way to educate all future generations on the horrors of antisemitism and Nazism.

"I represent a large Jewish community in North East Leeds and attend the service at Leeds Town Hall every year, which is always a very moving and sombre occasion. To see people of all faiths and none come together to condemn the atrocities, like those perpetrated at Auschwitz, shows that there is absolutely no place for antisemitism in our society nor in our world.”