Yellow lights illuminate B.C. landmarks for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yellow lights are shining at Vancouver City Hall to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, 2023. (Twitter)

Yellow lights illuminated Vancouver City Hall overnight ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.

The local landmark is one of 15 in B.C. that are being lit for the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp.

The colour yellow evokes the memorial candles lit in remembrance of Holocaust victims, according to the City of Vancouver, which released a statement of solidarity with the Jewish community on Friday.

“We join with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre…to pause and remember the six million Jewish lives, the survivors (many living in Vancouver) and the countless others—children, women and men---who were victims of the atrocities carried out by the Nazi regime and its collaborators,” reads the statement.

The centre will be part of the city’s commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day at City Hall at 1:30 p.m., which will also be livestreamed.

Other Vancouver landmarks that will be lit yellow Friday include the airport, Convention Centre, Canada Place, Burrard Street Bridge, Bloedel Conservatory, Bentall Centre and B.C. BC Place. Across the Lower Mainland, include Coquitlam’s Lafarge Lake Fountain and the city halls of North Vancouver and Delta will also pay tribute.

Over on the island, the B.C. Legislature and the city halls of Victoria, Nanaimo and Saanich will shine yellow too.

In a statement issued Friday, the premier said “We can never lose sight of the fact that behind the numbers are real human beings: beloved children, siblings, aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents. Through the stories of survivors and their families, the horrors of the Holocaust will always live on.”

Politicians across the province are posting photos of themselves holding signs reading “We Remember” on social media.

In one tweet, Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Selina Robinson is pictured with B.C. Energy Minister George Heyman, who she calls a child of survivors.

“We remember the millions of Jews, Roma, LGBTQ2S and others who were murdered because of hate,” Robinson wrote.

The Vancouver Police Department posted a video of its members holding signs as well.

“Together, #WeRemember the past to build a better future and to ensure that #neveragain truly means never again.”

A 2019 study titled “Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Canada” found 48 per cent of Canadians believe something similar to the tragic event could happen in other Western democracies today.

According to the survey, 22 per cent of millennials said they haven’t or weren’t sure if they had heard of the Holocaust.

More information on the Holocaust is available on the following websites:

• Independent Jewish Voices Canada
• Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver
• Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre
• World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Israel
• World Jewish Congress: We Remember