Our annual Holocaust Memorial Day event will take place on Wednesday 4 February 2026. The in-person event is now fully booked but you can still take part in our online programme. Please see the details below.

1.15pm - Testimony from Holocaust Survivor, Malka Levine

Malka was nearly three when German forces forced her family into the Jewish ghetto in Volodymyr-Volynski, a city then in Poland but now part of Ukraine. Of the 25,000 Jews living there in 1939, only thirty would survive. Malka’s father was shot during the first pogrom, but before he died, he begged her mother, Rivka, to “save the children.”

Rivka kept Malka and her two older brothers alive through eighteen terrifying months in the ghetto. Amid the inhumanity, some risked their lives to help. A Wehrmacht officer spared them from execution, and a Polish dressmaker sheltered them when the SS hunted for victims. Later, Rivka implored Mr. and Mrs. Yakimchuk, a Ukrainian farmer and his wife, to hide her and the children. The Yakimchuks dug a pit beneath their barn, where Malka’s family endured the freezing winter until the Red Army arrived the following summer.

That same year, Rivka was once again forced to draw on her strength as she set out to build a new life for herself and her children.

Date: Wednesday 4 February 2026
Time: 1.15pm to 2.15pm (GMT)

How to watch: The YouTube link will be available for anyone to watch online and will be embedded on this page on the day of the event. There is no need to register your place.

3pm - Two short films: Humo (Smoke) and Girl No. 60427

Film 1: Humo (Smoke) - A boy, Daniel, travels by train towards a dark destination known as the smokehouse. Humo takes us on a journey through the life of a child captured and stuck in a concentration camp, and it is as harrowing as you can imagine. (12 minutes)

Film 2: Girl No. 60427 - Tel Aviv, 1998, summer vacation. Reut discovers her grandmother’s diary which had been written during the Holocaust. Grandma's story resonates in Reut's well-developed imagination and the fun week in Tel Aviv with her grandparents turns into something else entirely. In this combination of live action and animation, a young director takes us back to her childhood experiences with her own grandmother. (21 minutes)

How to watch: Vimeo links to the films above will be available for you to view online for 48 hours. Links will be embedded onto this webpage.

Date/Time: Both films will be available from 3pm Wednesday 4 February 2026 to 3pm on Friday 6 February 2026

5pm - Landecker Digital Memory Lab: Online launch of the Digital Memory Database

After our annual Holocaust Memorial Day event, there will be an online launch of the Digital Memory Database, a world-first platform housing global digital Holocaust memory practice from the 1990s up to today, which will continue to grow into the future. This event is hosted by the Landecker Digital Memory Lab, the University of Sussex’s international research hub dedicated to ensuring a sustainable future for Holocaust memory in the digital age.

How to watch: Sign up free here.

Date: Wednesday 4 February 2026
Time: 5pm to 6.15pm (GMT)

Posted on behalf of: Office for Advancement: events@sussex.ac.uk
Last updated: Friday, 28 November 2025