East Midlands community book launched for Holocaust Memorial Day

An image of the '80 Candles Quilt (Credit: Laura Burrill)

A book is to be launched through a series of public events held across Derbyshire to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Led by the Derbyshire Jewish Community, The 80 Candles Quilt Book: Honouring Individual Lives through Collaborative Stitch coincides with the annual day on 27th January, commemorating the six million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust, alongside the millions of others persecuted and killed by the Nazi regime and in subsequent genocides.

The book is a continuation of the 80 Candles Quilt Project, a collaboratively created memorial quilt first unveiled for Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, which marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The project brought together participants from across the East Midlands, each undertaking personal research into the life of an individual affected by Nazi persecution and translating what they learned into a hand-stitched candle.

More than 70 participants took part in community workshops contributing from a wide range of faiths, cultures and backgrounds. Their shared dedication to learning, remembering and telling individual human stories is what ultimately led to the creation of the book.

Project creator, community arts practitioner and author of the book, Laura Burrill said: “The book exists because participants wanted the stories they had researched and stitched to continue to be shared. It carries forward not only the lives being remembered, but also the care, responsibility and commitment shown by everyone involved.”

Each stitched square in the quilt represents a specific individual and measures 18cm, a number symbolising chai, the Hebrew word for “life.” Participants were invited to research deeply, reflect carefully and stitch slowly, allowing time for connection and understanding.

The quilt’s visual language draws on a muted palette inspired by the suitcases and shoes displayed at Auschwitz, while a recurring red embroidery thread runs through the work, referencing the idea of an invisible red thread that connects lives across time, place and circumstance.

The book brings together images of the completed quilt alongside the stories behind each candle, ensuring that the learning undertaken by participants across the East Midlands can continue to educate, move and inform future readers. It is not presented as a conclusion, but as an ongoing act of remembrance.

The book will be introduced during Holocaust Memorial Day events in Derby, Matlock and Chesterfield. While copies will be available and signed, these gatherings are first and foremost spaces of remembrance, reflection and collective witness.

All events are held in civic, educational and public venues rather than religious spaces, reflecting the Derbyshire Jewish Community’s commitment to accessibility, welcome and shared responsibility for memory.

Book Signing
Copies of The 80 Candles Quilt Book will be available at each event, with book signing taking place following the formal commemorations where appropriate. The signing is intended as a quiet extension of remembrance, an opportunity to honour the lives and stories held within the pages.

Holocaust Memorial Day reminds us that remembrance is not passive. It is an active choice, to learn, to listen and to carry stories forward.

Members of the public are warmly invited to attend and take part in remembering, reflecting and bearing witness together.

Locally, the Derby event will be held from 10:00am to 11:00am with a Derby Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service at the Multi-Faith Centre, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB.

RSVP essential. Click here for more information.