Manchester City are once again proud to today play our part in marking Holocaust Memorial Day.

Holocaust Memorial Day is marked each year on January 27 to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi Persecution including the LGBTQ+ community, disabled people, Roma and Sinti and others.

This year the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘Be the light in the darkness’, reflecting both the horror of what occurred – but also the bravery and resistance of so many who resisted this darkness.

As part of this year’s special events, the Holocaust Memorial Trust has also put together a campaign to encourage remembrance by lighting a candle in the window.

On the day of remembrance, members of the Club’s Academy will take part in a virtual team meeting along with other Premier League Academies to both remember and reflect and read a story.#

Alongside this, Bernardo Silva has taken part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s video representing Manchester City asking supporters to join together and light a candle in their window at 8pm for the #LightTheDarkness national moment.

Part of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day remembrance will focus on Julius Hirsch who was the first Jewish player to represent Germany at national level and subsequently deported to Auschwitz where he was murdered.

Academy players will hold a minute’s silence in honour of Julius and all those who lost their lives in the Holocaust as well as in subsequent genocides.

Meanwhile, ahead of today’s commemorative events, City’s Under-14 Academy players joined their Manchester United counterparts in an online meeting with Steven Frank BEM, a Holocaust Survivor.

Steven gave a detailed testimony about his own and his family’s experience of the Holocaust involving movement around Europe and time in Concentration camps during the war. The Academy players have all subsequently written personal letters of thanks to 85 year old Steven Frank in addition to players creating and asking questions during the meeting.

For City as a club, remembering and honouring the story of the Holocaust is a vital and ongoing part of our education programme.

And, as City’s Head of Education Mark Adams relates, the memories and message of the terrible events of that period resonate just as much today.

“The whole project is based around the Academy players learning about the Holocaust but also being ambassadors and sharing the message to stand against prejudice today”

“The education programme is based around football and runs for six weeks and following this we invite a Holocaust survivor to the Club to meet with the boys”, Mark confirmed.

“We did that at City Football Academy in 2019, in 2020 we held it at St Bede’s School where the boys attend, and this year it was held online”.

“In March or April, we would usually take two boys along with representatives from other Premier League clubs to Auschwitz and Krakow in Poland and upon their return they would become ambassadors talking to the other players about what they saw and learnt from their visit to Auschwitz.

“As this year is slightly different because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the players will come together online, and we will read a story in memory of those who lost their lives”.

As part of the Academy’s Holocaust Memorial Day remembrance activities this year, players will also light a candle in their window at 8pm to mark the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s #LightTheDarkness national moment.