In 2018 the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘The Power of Words’. The Civic Commemoration will take place on Saturday 27th January at 6.30pm in the Harpur Suite and will include readings, recitation of the Jewish Havdalah blessings over a multi-flame candle, spices, and wine, recitation of the  Kaddish - the Jewish mourning prayer and the lighting of eleven candles.

A Commemoration at the Anne Frank Tree in Russell Park between Pembroke and Bower Street, will take place at 12.30pm on Monday 29th January. This will feature the lighting of a candle of remembrance and words from Anne Frank’s Diary.

Participants can take the short walk to The Higgins Bedford for the launch at 1pm of the exhibition ‘Anne Frank & Family’ which will be on display until 18th February. Gillian Walnes Perry MBE, co-founder of the Anne Frank Trust will deliver a keynote address.

A partnership of community organisations  – Bedford Council of Faiths, The Higgins Bedford, Remembering Srebrenica, the Anne Frank Trust,  URUMURI, University of Bedfordshire Community and Faith and The Place Theatre have created a programme of events from 23rd January which includes plays and films, a schools programme and survivors' storytelling.

The Revd. Cass Howes, Chair of Bedford Council of Faiths, said: "It’s important that we remember and acknowledge the past, but more important that we move on and work together to create a hopeful future”. 

Anne Frank & Family, an exhibition of family photographs by Otto Frank, taken before World War Two, will be free to visit at The Higgins Bedford from 24thJanuary – 18th February 2018. The exhibition has been brought to The Higgins Bedford by The Anne Frank Trust and forms a central part of Bedford’s Holocaust Memorial events.