United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Prague organized a series of events to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

Between 19 and 30 January 2009, UNIC organized a series of education programmes for high school students jointly with the Jewish Museum in Prague. The ten events attended by more than 250 students included lectures by Holocaust survivors, discussions, and screenings of two documentaries “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” and “A Ghetto Named Baluty”. “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” is a documentary about children transported from their homes in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland to foster homes in Great Britain and the dramatic impact the Kindertransport had on the lives of the rescued children.  “A Ghetto Named Baluty” is about Holocaust survivors returning to Baluty, a neighbourhood in the city of Lodz, Poland, more than 60 years after they were transported there on their way to Auschwitz.

“A Ghetto Named Baluty” was also the main focus of an exhibit held in the UN House lobby. Representatives of the UN, the Jewish Museum in Prague, students and other partners attended the opening on 12 January 2009. The exhibit consisted of photos taken during the filming of the documentary.

United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Pretoria arranged jointly with the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre and the University of South Africa (UNISA) two moving commemorations of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
 
On 27 January 2009, UNIC Officer-in-Charge delivered the Secretary General’s message at a community centre in Johannesburg to an audience representing civil society, academia, religious groups and the business community.  The programme also included a testimony of a Holocaust survivor and a presentation by documentary filmmaker, Leora Kahn.

Information materials were given to the audience and the ceremony was complimented by an exhibition mounted by the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre on Darfur and last year's xenophobic violence in South Africa.

On 1 February, The School of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at UNISA joined UNIC Pretoria and the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre in commemorating the Day for the first time in Pretoria at a ceremony held at University of South Africa.

The Secretary-General’s message was delivered by the UNIC Officer-in-Charge. UNISA Pro Vice Chancellor stressed the importance of commemorating this day globally and the Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre spoke about the centres’ work. The approximately 200 participants then viewed a screening of the documentary “Hana’s Suitcase”, the story of two Jewish children who lived in Czechoslovakia and what happened to them when their country was occupied by the Nazis in 1939. To close the ceremony, Mrs. Ella Blumenthal, an Auschwitz survivor recalled what she witnessed during the Holocaust and singer Ashleigh Harvey spoke about her experiences of visiting Nazi camps in Poland and concluded with a moving song.

United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Nairobi, in collaboration with the Israeli Embassy, observed the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on 27 January 2009. The solemn function was attended by one hundred guests including members of the diplomatic corps, students from State House High School, United Nations staff and media representatives.

The UNIC Director moderated a programme with the theme “An Authentic Basis for Hope: Holocaust Remembrance and Education”. The programme included speeches by the Israeli and German Ambassadors and by a representative of the Jewish community.

The UNEP Deputy Executive Director read the United Nations Secretary-General's message of the Day and each guest lit one of six candles representing 6 million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust.

In addition, students from State House High School recited poems and visitors viewed an exhibition on the Holocaust, courtesy of the Israeli Embassy, after the ceremony.

To mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, United Nations Information Service (UNIS) Vienna launched the exhibit "Vienna's Conscience: Close-Ups and Conversations after Hitler", based on a book with the same title by the late Richard Winter, Susan Winter Balk and Gregory Weeks. UN staff members, students, and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the diplomatic corps, and the media attended the ceremony held in the rotunda of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) on 27 January 2009.

After opening remarks by the UNIS Vienna Deputy Director, the Chair of the International Task Force for Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research addressed the approximately one hundred guests on his personal experiences about the Holocaust and on the role of the task force.

The VIC choir and Yehuda Halevi music school presented a choral medley, tenor Yigal Altshuler performed a moving prayer song, and the Student Council President of the Vienna International School delivered the Secretary-General’s message of the Day.

Susan Winter Balk recounted her late husband Richard Winter's vision and philosophy, stressing it was not important to lay blame on anyone, but to seek answers to difficult questions. Balk also spoke of her continuing effort to help people come to terms with difficult and traumatic experiences by talking about them and seeking dialogue.

Dr. Gregory Weeks of Webster University rounded off the event with a brief historical review of the genesis of the day of commemoration, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN genocide convention.