Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day
We commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day, including the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, on Thursday 23rd January, 2020 at Belsize Square Synagogue. We were honoured to have Ralf Teepe, Head of Culture and Education at the German embassy, Christoph Weingartner, head of press and public diplomacy from the Austrian embassy, and Vivi Aisen, the Director of Public diplomacy at the Israeli embassy attending the event.
Speakers addressed this year’s theme ‘Stand Together’ in their remarks to the well-attended audience. The service and candle lighting was led by Rabbi Stuart Altshuler. Survivors Frank Bright, who was incarcerated in Auschwitz in October 1944, gave his Reflections on Auschwitz and Zigi Shipper BEM spoke about the importance of testimony and sharing history with future generations. Hephzibah Rudofsky, daughter of Lady Zahava Kohn, spoke about standing together to recount history. Jane Banham, an AJR volunteer who works on the AJR My Story project, shared excerpts from Dr Peter Brunner, Mary Green and Suzanne Lee as recorded in their My Story books. Emma Harrod, granddaughter of Zigi Shipper BEM recited a moving poem titled, “A Prayer of a Jewish Leader in an Extermination Camp”.
Frank Bright recalls his time in Auschwitz, “In the failing light, I saw a rectangular, rather squat chimney belch fire and smoke. I saw the next flame and wondered whether it had just consumed my mother. Then a curtain came down on my mind. It was self-preservation.”
Ziggy Shipper BEM stated, “I saw some trains arrive where 1,000 people would get off and within a very short time they all would be gassed to death. I could never accept that human beings could take the lives of innocent people, especially children and babies, in such a brutal way. Like I say to young people, there is nothing we can do about the past, but we can do a lot about the present and the future, and it’s up to young people, the most important people in the world.”
AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman said, “Today we mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most notorious of the network of Nazi death camps. We Stand Together in memory of those who perished and to combat anti-Semitism and to support learning and teaching about the Holocaust.” He went on to state, “Through our Refugee Voices Testimony Archive and My Story project, we continue to interview and collect eye witness testimony from among our membership. By capturing and sharing their experiences we stand ready to better inform future generations about the atrocities committed.”
In honour of the 75th anniversaries of liberation, The AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive has created a dedicated site for concentration camp survivors. To view video testimony, quotes, photographs and documents please click on the following link https://www.ajrrefugeevoices.org.uk/camp-survivors.
To view the service that took place, please click on the following link: https://livestream.com/accounts/4633213/events/4741296
Pictures are courtesy of Adam Soller Photography
