Derby’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day events take place on Tuesday 27th January 2026. This solemn date has been marked in the City since 2001.

Details of the programme are below. All are free – no tickets are required.

Holocaust Memorial Day was launched in the UK in 2000, with the first event taking place on January 27 2001. The date was chosen to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz- Birkenau in 1945.

The Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) Trust includes in its scope of remembrance, all genocides that took place since 1945 including the Genocide of Bosniak Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

The Holocaust was the Nazi-led genocide of six million Jews, carried out during World War II. The Nazi regime and its collaborators also persecuted and murdered millions of others, including Roma and Sinti, disabled people, Poles and other Slavic civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, and others; and they targeted groups such as LGBTQ+ people, political opponents, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The HMD group in Derby chooses to include reference to, and recognition of, the genocides of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire ( modern day Turkey) from 1915-23 and the Holodomor in 1933, which was the systematic starvation of millions of Ukrainians by the Soviet Union.

Derby City Council supported that position by passing a resolution in November 2018 to formally recognise these genocides. This was followed up in November 2020 by a resolution to recognise the independence of Artsakh/Nagorno- Karabakh which was subject to the ethnic cleansing of the historic Armenian population in September 2023 by Azerbaijan. Since then Azerbaijan has pursued a continuing cultural genocide as they remove (or re-appropriate) all traces of Armenian culture.

The Derby events remember all those millions of people who have died in all genocides.

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The programme this year is:

Derby :
2:30pm Derby Cathedral Irongate, DE1 3GP- a service of reflection followed by the stone setting by the trees on Cathedral Green. All who wish to do so may take part and stones will be provided at the trees.

At the end of the stone setting there will be a dedication of a new Apricot tree to remember the Armenian Genocide (1915-23) and the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in Artsakh (2023)

4:00 pm Presentations at the Bosnian Centre, Curzon Street, DE1 1LN

6:00pm Derby Cathedral – a service of Commemoration, Remembrance and Hope

7:30pm – 9:00pm (Doors open 7:00pm) : “An Event for Holocaust Memorial Day” – to commemorate the day with a key note speech, music, poetry, dance and spoken word. This will be held at QUAD (Market Place Cathedral Quarter, Market Pl, Derby DE1 3AS). No tickets or booking are required. Refreshments available.

Programme at QUAD:

• Songs performed by Surtal Arts Community Choir
• St. Benedict’s Catholic Voluntary Academy ‘The Whispers In The Wind’ created and performed by Year 12 Drama Students Laura Barnfield, Cerys Barnet, Kalina Campbell, Grace Neal”
• Ashti – Carol Fieldhouse and Dlivan Salih perform ‘Birdsong and Sulaymaniyah.’
• Mike Lewis Keynote speech. The Holocaust and Identity – the Refugee and the Survivor – a family story.
• Bill Varnam – music – ‘A Hand of Friendship’
• Poems read by Charles Whittaker
• Hoverla Ukrainian Dance Ensemble – Music and Dance. Kolomeyka and Drum Dance

Other events:

Derby:

10:00am–11:00am

Derby Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service. Multi Faith Centre, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB

RSVP essential: https://www.derbyshirejewishcommunity.co.uk/event-details/holocaust-memorial-day-derby-interfaith-remembrance

Matlock:

12:30pm arrival for a 1pm start

Candle lighting followed by exhibition – Derbyshire County Council County Hall, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 3AG. RSVP not required 

Chesterfield:
6:30pm–8pm

Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration – Chesterfield Borough Council

Featuring testimony via Zoom from Peter Summerfield BEM. Chesterfield Library, New Beetwell Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 1QN RSVP essential:

https://www.derbyshirejewishcommunity.co.uk/event-details/holocaust-memorial-day-2026-in-chesterfield