2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Across the world events will be held to commemorate the occasion, and commitments (politically, socially and personally) will be made to ensure that such events never happen again.

We’re working with a range of partners, including Bath & North East Somerset Council, the Medlock Trust, the Sarum Educational Trust, the ‘More Trees for B&NES’ charity, Radio Bath FM, the Friends of Bath Jewish Burial Ground, and the Midsomer Norton Schools Trust, to organise a year-long series of events focussed around community cohesion, bridge-building and collaborative working.

Full details of the project are listed below, including our three principle objectives, but in short we want to raise awareness of the European Holocaust (using materials and resources provided by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust), encourage our community to identify shared values and ambitions by working together on a range of projects, and for the public to learn from the events of the past (recognising that division and hatred of minorities has no place in modern society).

As we move away from the events of 1930s and 1940s Europe, more and more people are unaware of the horrific details of just what happened.

The Holocaust was the systematic state-sponsored persecution and murder of Europe's Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War. This programme of targeted mass murder was a central part of the Nazis’ broader plans to create a new world order based on their fascist ideology.

As well as the Jewish community, other minority groups were also targeted and murdered by the Nazis, including members of the LGBT community, socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people, Slavs, Freemasons, Black Europeans, liberals and gypsies.

International Holocaust Memorial Day is observed and marked on the 27th of January each year to remember the horrors of what happened under the Nazi regime. It’s also a poignant time for us all, whatever our race, religion, creed or nationality to collectively re-commit to ensure that such crimes never happen again.

We all have a responsibility to remember the Holocaust, learn from it and to work towards a more inclusive, tolerant and welcoming society where we celebrate diversity and break down all types of barriers that keep us apart.