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Clubs mark Holocaust Memorial Day

28 Jan 2019
AFC Bournemouth Holocaust Memorial Day Schachter speech

Academies light candles before their matches, while Chelsea and AFC Bournemouth educate youngsters

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Sunday 27 January marked Holocaust Memorial Day, a day to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution, and in the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

The Premier League and its clubs commemorated the day with their own tributes.

At the Premier League's Under-14 matches, boys from the club academies lit candles, held memorial cards of the victims of the Holocaust and observed minute's silences ahead of kick-off.

This was part of work the Premier League's education department has been doing with the Holocaust Education Trust.

Included in this is a pilot Under-14 Equality Inspires International tournament taking place later this year, with the winning team going to Auschwitz for an educational trip.

Clubs also conducted their own activities to mark the day.

The Chelsea Foundation conducted workshops in a local primary school as children explored the importance and impact of the Holocaust and antisemitism.

This formed part of the foundation's equality and diversity programmes for schoolchildren that it has been carrying out 2016.

At AFC Bournemouth, the club's academy players heard a speech from Henry Schachter, a local resident who was a survivor of the Holocaust, but whose parents died in the concentration camps.

"We need the younger generation to listen, learn and, hopefully, pass on the message," Schachter, pictured top, said. "That's what we're all aiming for."

He will be a guest of AFC Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn when they host Chelsea in the Premier League on Wednesday 30 January.

The club's equality ticket allocation has been given to the Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation for the match, too.

"Today is about tomorrow, it's not about yesterday," Mostyn told the club's official website about Schachter's speech.

"Holocaust Remembrance Day is about recognising what happened and ensuring it never happens again."

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