General debate on Holocaust Memorial Day 2019

This debate pack has been compiled ahead of the general debate on Holocaust Memorial Day to be held in the Commons Chamber on Thursday 24 January 2019. The subject was determined by the Backbench Business Committee.

The debate will be on the motion: That this House has considered Holocaust Memorial Day 2019.

Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January, has taken place in the UK since 2001. Each year, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust chooses a different theme to enable audiences on Holocaust Memorial Day to learn something new about the past. Every theme is relevant to the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and to each subsequent genocide. This year’s theme: Torn from home.

Torn from home encourages audiences to reflect on how the enforced loss of a safe place to call ‘home’ is part of the trauma faced by anyone experiencing persecution and genocide. ‘Home’ usually means a place of safety, comfort and security.

HMD 2019 will include marking the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Rwanda, which began in April 1994 and the 40th anniversary of the end of the Genocide in Cambodia, which ended in 1979.