Newham Council Holocaust Memorial Day 2020

This morning I attended our annual Council event to honour Holocaust Memorial Day (held on 27 January which is the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz and today is the 75th anniversary) in the Old Town Hall in Stratford.

There was some really wonderful positive songs, musical recitals and poems by Newham children from various local schools.

But the first hand accounts of murder, racism and cruelty by survivors of very different genocide John Hajdu MBE and Arnesa Buljušmić-Kusturawere was so moving.

John Hajdu was a Hungarian Jew who as a small child had both of his parents sent to German concentration camps while he hid with an aunt in a ghetto. After surviving Nazi persecution he suffered further discrimination as a Jew from the post war communist dictatorship in Hungry and had to flee following the failed revolution in 1956.

While Arnesa was a Bosnian Muslim who Serb snipers tried to kill her when she was 6 and who lost many relatives in the genocidal mass shootings and concentration camps of that war.

I had to leave early but I came away very moved by the accounts of John and Arnesa and the beautiful songs and poetry by our young people but angry that our international political institutions did not ,after the horror of Auschwitz, prevent similar genocide in Bosnia nor also in Rwanda.

(Hat tip photos Newham Council social media)

Stand Together - Holocaust Memorial Day - Monday 27 January 2020. Stratford Town Hall 9.30-12pm

"Stand Together is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020. It explores how genocidal regimes throughout history have deliberately fractured societies by marginalising certain groups, and how these tactics can be challenged by individuals standing together with their neighbours, and speaking out against oppression.​​

In the years leading up to the Holocaust, Nazi policies and propaganda deliberately encouraged divisions within German society – urging ‘Aryan’ Germans to keep themselves separate from their Jewish neighbours. 

The Holocaust, Nazi Persecution of other groups and each subsequent genocide, was enabled by ordinary citizens not standing with their targeted neighbours.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – this is a significant milestone and is made particularly poignant by the dwindling number of survivors who are able to share their testimony. It also marks the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia

It provides an important opportunity for all residents to remember those who suffered and died in the Holocaust, Nazi persecutions and subsequent genocides including Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Join us as we reflect upon these atrocities and join together in demonstrating our solidarity in combating anti-semitism, racism and hatred.

Date: Monday 27 January 2020

Time: 9.30am - 12.00pm

Old Town Hall, Stratford, 29 The Broadway, London E15 4BQ

This year, we are honoured to be welcoming guest speaker and Holocaust survivor John Hajdu​.
This is a FREE public event. All are welcome to attend".

Hat tip Newham Council