In connection with Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, demonstrations, seminars and school projects are arranged around Sweden. In Västerås, a ceremony was held in the cathedral on Saturday with speeches, music and candle lighting.
– The generation that lived during the Second World War is soon gone. New generations must take over these stories, so that the Holocaust never happens again, says Stefan Sturesson from the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association, one of the organizers.
Henry Ceder’s parents survived the Holocaust
One of the visitors to Västerås Cathedral was Henry Ceder, 68, from Västerås. His Jewish parents each survived labor and concentration camps in Poland and Germany and came to Sweden after the war.
They met in a hospital in Varberg and eventually moved to Köping, where Henry Ceder’s aunt lived. The parents were married there in 1946 and later moved to Västerås, where he was born.
– Today there are deniers of the Holocaust and the worst thing that can happen is silence, not pretending to be anything. Today we have anti-Semitism on both the left and the right and an imported anti-Semitism, says Henry Ceder.
Hear the Western Austrian Henry Ceder tell about his parents who survived the extermination camps.