Service in Sandwell to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2025
On Sunday 26 January 2025, Sandwell Council commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day with a service from 11am to 12 noon. Everyone was invited to attend.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was the largest Nazi concentration camp, and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.
Mindu Hornick MBE (awarded in services to Holocaust education) spoke about her inspiring yet heartbreaking journey as an Auschwitz and Holocaust survivor.
During the Second World War, Mindu’s father had been drafted into a forced labour battalion and, as the war continued, the rest of the family was sent to a ghetto. Then, Mindu was sent on a cattle truck bound for Auschwitz with her mother, older sister and two younger brothers. She and her sister survived as, after several months, they were selected for slave labour and sent to work in an ammunitions factory near Hamburg, but she never saw her father, mother or brothers again.
In 1948, three years after the war ended, provisions were made for Mindu to travel from Czechoslovakia to England and live with relatives in Birmingham. After meeting her husband, her life changed for the better. They started a happy family and built a successful electrical store business together. Now in her mid-90s, Mindu continues to create a positive legacy by sharing her experiences of extreme prejudice and discrimination to educate others and inspire hope for a more promising future.
The memorial service took place at Memorial Gardens at Highfields House, High Street, West Bromwich.
Sandwell Council hosts its Holocaust Memorial service on the closest Sunday (26 January) to Holocaust Memorial Day. For a Better Future was the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2025.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2026
Our 2026 service will be held on Sunday 25 January 2026 at Memorial Gardens, Highfields House, High Street, West Bromwich, B70 8RJ. More details will be published on this webpage closer to the event. Bridging Generations is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2026.