Yom HaShoah will this year be commemorated by a live event, at the Iconic Bridgewater Hall.
After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, Manchester’s Yom HaShoah presentation returns with a live event on 27th April. For the first time in its history, this event will be held in Bridgewater Hall.
While the annual presentation to mark world Jewry’s remembrance of the Holocaust has been on hold, Yom HaShoah Manchester, the charity which organises the local commemoration, joined with its national UK partners for online events to mark the day in 2020 and 2021.
However, with restrictions now lifted, Yom HaShoah Manchester has announced there will be a return to a live presentation. This year’s commemoration is entitled Notes on Sorrow and Survival and will take as its theme the music of the Holocaust. It will include work from
the composers who were caught in the horrors – many of whom were killed – and who used their talents to write about their devastating experiences, as well as songs which were sung by Jewish prisoners and partisans.
Music was also deployed by the Nazis and forcibly played by Jewish captives in the camps when inmates were marched to slave labour. The Yom HaShoah event – which is free – will curate this in a programme of live music and survivor testimony.
“When we think of the horrors of the Holocaust, it’s hard to imagine how music would have found its place during that dark and terrible time,” says Jackie Field, Chairman of Yom HaShoah Manchester. “Yet music had a seminal role during those harrowing years. So much was composed and played in even the most terrible of circumstances. Tragically so many musicians were murdered among the six million. However, their music lives on as another way for us to remember.”
Mrs Field added that after a two-year absence, it seemed supremely fitting to return with a live event which could bring the community together in a soaring act of remembrance: “Music is timeless and the Bridgewater Hall is such a fitting and dignified place to sit and listen to the sounds which come out of those dark years. Sadly, the number of our honoured survivors dwindles each year. We have to therefore look for as many ways as possible to memorialise the six million, honour those who survived, and so ensure the Holocaust is never forgotten.”
To find out more about the event or to secure seats email yomhashoahmanchester@gmail.com or visit their website at yomhashoahmanchester.org.uk