Year Six children from Mereside CE Primary Academy took part in Shropshire Council’s annual interfaith ceremony on Remembering Srebrenica Day, which this year was on Friday 11 July 2025.
Shropshire children join with faith representatives to commemorate Remembering Srebrenica Day
Shropshire children join with faith representatives to commemorate Remembering Srebrenica Day
The ceremony was held at the memorial cherry tree planted outside Shirehall in Shrewsbury. The tree formally commemorates the role of the armed forces in humanitarian efforts around genocides such as befell the Muslim community in Srebrenica. It is the thirtieth anniversary of the genocide, where over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim people, mainly men and boys, were brutally murdered because of their faith.
Councillor Neil Bentley, as deputy portfolio holder for children and education, said:
“It was a moving ceremony in which to participate, and the children were all an absolute credit to Mereside Academy and to their families.
“I was pleased to be able to tell the children a little bit more about the role that men from the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry played in helping to liberate Bergen-Belsen camp, on 15th April 1945. Since that time, service men and service women stationed in Shropshire have played their part in peacekeeping roles and humanitarian roles including in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“I was equally pleased to hear more from the children about the thoughtful messages of love and peace that they had written on their Srebrenica flower motifs, and to see the attention that they played to what the Christian, Jewish and Muslim people from the inter faith forums shared with them about respecting differences in faiths and working together. The memorial cherry tree is a fitting tribute, dressed with these messages from the children.”
The children were joined by Reverend Ken Chippindale, for Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum, and by Mr Mark Michaels, Imam Sohayb Peerbhai, and Reverend David Wiseman, from the South Shropshire Interfaith Forum. Mr Mark Michaels and Imam Sohayb Peerbhai shared that although they were Jewish and Muslim in terms of their faith, they were also the best of friends.
Mr Michaels shared the story of Hatidza, a Muslim woman he had met in Srebrenica, and to whom he had promised to always remember and share the names of her husband and her two sons, who died in the genocide. Hatidza’s husband was Abdulah known as Salko, and her sons were Azmir aged 21 and Almir aged just 18 at the time of their deaths.
Imam Peerbhai then read a Jewish prayer for Srebrenica, and Reverend Wiseman talked about the welcome given by all faiths to Bosnian refugees in Manchester at the time of the conflict. For the Council, Councillor Rosemary Dartnall read the Christian prayer for Srebrenica in her capacity as local councillor for the area.
After a three-wick memorial candle had been lit, and the tree had been dressed, Reverend Chippindale talked to the children about how between them, the adults represented the three world faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and respected each other’s faiths. To illustrate the point, he closed the ceremony with the Muslim prayer for Srebrenica.
Further information
The Council’s focus is upon the humanitarian role of the armed forces, with the tree planted to commemorate not only the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in WW2, in which the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry were involved, but also the continuing role of service men and service women, at Srebrenica and in other genocides and conflicts around the world since then.
Shropshire Archives records show the role that men from the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry played in helped to liberate Bergen-Belsen camp, on 15th April 1945. We know there had been no food there for days, or water, and that immediate action was taken by the British Army to save as many lives as possible. in an eyewitness record, which you can read about in Shropshire Archives, Mr Douglas Jones, who was a driver in the regiment, remembers taking food into the camp. He says that he was only there for two hours but that he has never forgotten it.
The children learned that to be humanitarian could be described as to provide life saving support and protection to people most in need, and that is what the armed forces seek to do. It is also important to add that this is about need; there is no discrimination based on religion or faith or anything else.
The tree was dressed with flower motifs and messages from the children, as well as leaves from the adults with the 2025 theme “Remember Yesterday, Act Today”. It is one of the 20 trees now planted with children across the county to commemorate the Holocaust and other genocides.
The Srebrenica Flower is a symbol of remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide in Bosnia. Its eleven petals represent the day the genocide began, on 11th July 1995. Their white colour represents the innocence of its victims. The flower’s green centre represents hope for justice and recognition of the genocide.
Remembering Srebrenica is a charitable organisation whose aim is to raise awareness of the genocide in Bosnia and bring people together to tackle hatred and help build safer, stronger communities in the UK.
For more information, please see resources on the following websites
Remembering Srebrenica website: www.srebrenica.org.uk
HMD Trust website: www.hmd.org.uk
