Historian to speak at Holocaust events

The Holocaust and its legacy will be explored at three events in the city and county Professor Aubrey Newman, Emeritus Professor in the School of History.

For the past fifteen years the City of Leicester in co-operation with the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has been responsible for the commemoration on 27 January of Holocaust Memorial Day. 

This year Holocaust Memorial Day will be commemorated at three venues, Oadby Council Offices (26 Jan), our University's Fraser Noble Hall (27 Jan) and County Hall, Glenfield (28 Jan).  

Professor Newman said: “27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Russian army, has been chosen by the United Nations to mark the attempts by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews of Europe. 

“Each year in Britain the Holocaust Education Trust suggests a theme round which individual events might be based.

“This year the theme is ‘Don’t Stand By’, the idea being that standing passively and doing nothing is almost as bad as participating directly in such events.  The hope is always of trying to show the coming generation the importance of each individual standing up for rights of justice to all."

Over the past few years Professor Newman has been a frequent speaker on the Holocaust, especially in Leicester and at the National Holocaust Centre (Beth Shalomat) Laxton, in Nottinghamshire.

• Press release and information about the events