Over 20,000 candles were lit across the UK and globally, uniting the Jewish community to commemorate Yom HaShoah.
Maccabi GB’s Yellow Candle campaign connected families, community groups, Jewish residential homes, and educational institutions throughout the UK and other countries, including Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Spain and the USA.
The project’s mission was to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust were never forgotten, said its founders.
Ashley Lerner, chief executive of Maccabi GB, said: “The annual remembrance of those brutally murdered in the Shoah is something we must never and will never forget.
“Enabling individuals to be remembered via lighting a Yellow Candle year on year, ensures they are never forgotten.”
Candles from Maccabi GB's Yellow Candle project, together with a photograph, commemorating those who died in the Holocaust
Every Yellow Candle was accompanied by a biographical note obtained from Yad Vashem, which provided the name and age of someone who was murdered during the Holocaust. It also included the date and location of where they were killed.
Lerner continued: “Personally, lighting a Yellow Candle in Auschwitz Birkenau, as part of the March of Living UK delegation, in memory of Slomo Krausz, who, at the tender age of only three years old, was murdered at Auschwitz, is something I will never forget for the rest of my life. Thank you to all who lit Yellow Candles and keep the flame alive, so we never forget."
A ceremony was hosted by Yom HaShoah UK on May 5 in London next to the Houses of Parliament, attended by 2,000 people and watched by thousands more online.
During the ceremony, six Yellow Candles were lit to honour the lives of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Second and third-generation Holocaust descendants accompanied Holocaust survivors in lighting the Yellow Candles.
The ceremony was also attended by Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and the Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely.
Candles from Maccabi GB's Yellow Candle project, commemorating those who died in the Holocaust
During the ceremony, the #yellowcandle hashtag was trending across social media, featuring in 933,000 social media accounts across all platforms.
Celebrities and JC writers, including Tracy-Ann Oberman, Giles Coren and Josh Howie, shared images on social media of their Yellow Candles.
Each Yellow Candle came with a pair of sunflower seeds, and participants were invited to sow these seeds within the empty Yellow Candle tin. As part of the Remembrance to Renewal campaign, each flower symbolised growth and renewal after tragedy, said Maccabi GB.
As an official media partner to Maccabi GB, the JC distributed Yellow Candles to Jewish people across the British Jewish community.
