Holocaust Memorial

Each year around Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) we offer a space for reflection on the suffering and loss of the Holocaust in Europe in the 1930s and 40s and on subsequent genocides.

The Empty Chair represents communities destroyed. This physical symbol is borrowed from the Ghetto Heroes Square in Krakow with its 33 memorial chairs made of cast iron and bronze.

This empty chair stands for the households and communities emptied

by enclosure in ghettos
by deportation
by mass murder

for a rich culture driven from homes and streets

For the sin of silence,
For the sin of indifference,
For the sin of the secret complicity of neutrality,
For the closing of borders,
For the washing of hands,
For all that was done,
For all that was not done …