Holocaust Memorial Day: Portraits of last remaining UK survivors unveiled

 

Check out this BBC report on the these powerful but poignant portraits of UK death camp survivors on display at the Queen's Gallery to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 theme: #OneDay

 One Day – 27 January – is a day that we put aside every year to come together to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide. We learn more about the past, we empathise with others today, and we take action for a better future.

‘You didn’t think about yesterday, and tomorrow may not happen, it was only today that you had to cope with and you got through it as best you could.” - Iby Knill, survivor of the Holocaust.

The theme can be interpreted in many different ways:

• One Day in history
• One Day when life changed
• One Day at a time
• One Day in the future
• One Day as a snapshot

Holocaust Memorial Day provides an important opportunity for all residents to remember those who suffered and died in the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. Join us as we reflect upon these atrocities and join together in demonstrating our solidarity in combating antisemitism, racism and hatred.

Date: Thursday 27 January 2022
Time: 9.30am-12pm
Venue: Old Town Hall Stratford

This year, we are honoured to be welcoming speakers Ella Gari-Ebner (Generation 2 Generation) and Eric Murangwa Eugene MBE (Ishami Foundation)

This is a FREE public event. All are welcome to attend. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.

Register for your free place

Holocaust Memorial Day 2021: Be the light in the darkness

This morning I attended Newham Council's virtual event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. There was a very moving testimony by Holocaust survivors, Ann and Bob Kirk BEM. They described their separate childhood experiences of the pre war Nazi terror on Jews living in Germany and their life on the run after the Kristallnacht pogrom.

Both of them as children were able to flee to Britain via the famous Kindertransport network. They were both waved off by their parents at railways stations with them saying they will follow them soon. However, both sets of parents were murdered during the holocaust and they never saw them again.

Bob's father had even been wounded several times and decorated with the Iron Cross as a hero of the German Army during the First World War yet he was still killed by the Nazi's.

In the UK after the War, Ann and Bob, met up as adults and eventually married and led successful lives bringing up their sons.

I had to leave early for another meeting but I doubt I will ever forget this simple, quiet yet powerful testimony of genocide by Ann and Bob.

Newham Holocaust Memorial Day : Torn from Home

A really moving ceremony. Well done to all involved. I was so proud of all the confident and articulate young people who came up to speak and the great music that they played. Hat tip pictures and copy below to Newham Council Website/Facebook page

 "The candle-lighting ceremony, led by Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz and including Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer BEM, was part of Newham Council’s annual event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The theme this year was Torn From Home.

Around 400 people, mainly schoolchildren, gathered to reflect on how the loss of a safe place to call home is part of the trauma faced by anyone experiencing persecution and genocide. This included remembering those who suffered and died in the Holocaust and subsequent genocides and refugee crises such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Harry Olmer, 91, was born in Poland. He was 12 when World War II started. During the Nazi persecution of the Jews, he survived the horrors of five labour and concentration camps. He last saw his mother and sisters after he, his brother and father were separated from them in 1942.

Harry said: “It is vital that children and young people have an understanding of what can happen if we do not stand up to racism, prejudice or hate against those that are different by race or religion.”

Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz spoke about how people must never forget the horrors of the Holocaust. She said: “The Holocaust was an unparalleled human tragedy and act of evil. Six million Jewish people were murdered, simply for who they were. At least another five million people – Roma, people with disabilities or held certain political beliefs – were also killed, alongside many others. Millions of people were sent to their deaths because of the perverted, racist ideology of the Nazi era.

“As we remember those who suffered and died in the horrors of the Holocaust, we must unite against all forms of hatred and persecution wherever it exists to ensure that an atrocity like the Holocaust never happens again. We all have a responsibility to remember the horrors of the Holocaust – and to pass down that memory to future generations.

“The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is Torn from Home. Home is a place of safety, comfort and security. But for many people who are forced to flee persecution, it is a place they cannot return to. Newham has a proud history of tolerance and diversity, of being a genuine home to people from different countries, and a safe haven for those who have fled persecution. As a community, we strongly oppose all forms of racism and prejudice that drive these crimes and suffering. And we must continue to be a safe haven to all those persecuted throughout the world.”

Newham’s commemoration began with the Quwwat-ul-Islam Girls School Choir performing a song called One Day. The Klezmer Bridging Sounds Orchestra performed Gelem Gelem, an anthem of the Roma people murdered in the Holocaust. The 282 Squadron RAF Cadets Band from East Ham performed Abide With Me. Readings were given by pupils from St Luke’s Primary School, New City Primary School, Essex Primary School, Lathom Junior School, St Stephen’s Primary School, Kingsford Community School and Sir John Heron Primary School.

Other speakers included Lady Hannah Lowy Mitchell, a documentary maker and emeritus trustee for Women for Women International and chair of the Lowy Mitchell Foundation, and Lord Parry Mitchell, who chaired the Coexistence Trust, which encouraged dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students on UK university campuses.

Six candles were lit in memory of the six million who lost their lives during the Holocaust and other genocides. They were lit by Harry Olmer; Deputy Lieutenant John Barber, the Queen’s Representative in Newham; Adnan Khan, 17, a survivor of persecution in Afghanistan; Leah Lovett, a member of Newham’s Jewish community; Lord Mitchell and Lady Lowy Mitchell.

The Mayor concluded: “The racism, anti-Semitism, and hatred that drove the Holocaust is something we must continue to fight. We must honour those who suffered and died by remembering their stories. And we must honour them by learning from the past: by speaking up against all forms of hatred and making our neighbourhoods places where people of all backgrounds can call home.”
​

Newham Holocaust Memorial Day 2019: "Torn from home"

Torn from home is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2019. This theme helps us to reflect on how the loss of a safe place to call “home” is part of the trauma faced by anyone experiencing persecution and genocide.​​

On this page:

• Holocaust Memorial Day 2019

Holocaust Memorial Day 2019

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 antisemitism, racism and hatred.

Date: Friday 25 January

Time: 9.30am-12.30pm

East Ham Town Hall, Barking Road, E6 2RP

This year, we are honoured to be welcoming back guest speaker and Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer BEM​.
This is a FREE public event. All are welcome to attend.

(hat tip Newham Council website)

​

Holocaust Survivor Mala Tribich MBE

I attended the Newham Holocaust Memorial Day 2018. Concentration camp survivor Mala Tribich, who lost her mother, father and sister gave a compelling account of Nazi murder, inhumanity and cruelty.

This is what happens if you do not stand up for democracy, tolerance, respect and freedom.

The theme this year is "The power of words". So true.

Holocaust Memorial Day - Newham 2017

On Friday I attended a very moving event to mark "Holocaust Memorial Day" which remembers the attempt by German Nazi to murder all Jews in Europe and all subsequent holocausts in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and now Syria.

The wonderful guest speaker this year was the childhood survivor of 5 Nazi concentration camps, 90 year old Harry Olmer. I had tears in my eyes for much of Harry's speech. I also really appreciated the the wonderful moving music, songs and poetry of local Newham school children.

Democracy, free speech, decency, tolerance and respect for differences is so important and worth fighting for. Harry stood next to a man in a concentration camp who was shot dead by a Nazi for no reason other than that they were both Jews. He does not know why he survived and so many did not.

See Newham Council Press release below:-

"The victims of the Holocaust and other genocides across the world were remembered at a special event today (Friday 27 January) attended by Mayor Sir Robin Wales, and Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer. More than 400 people including schoolchildren and local residents attended Newham Council’s annual event at the Old Town Hall, Stratford, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Candles were lit, a minute’s silence held and there was also a performance by Newham’s Every Child a Musician Orchestra. 

As part of the event, 90-year-old Harry Olmer outlined his memories of the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust and shared his experiences which included surviving five concentration camps – including Plaszow near Krakow which later became famous in the movie Schindler’s List. He was also forced to work in a munitions factory filling shells with explosives and last saw his mother and sisters after he, his brother and father were separated from them in 1942.

Harry, who was one of six children, was born in Sonsowiec, Poland, in 1927. He told those at today’s event that one of his earliest memories of the war was from 1942 when 650 people were taken to a wood and shot. He said: “I was in a truck with a lot of other people and could hear the shooting. We had a woman who started screaming, so they stopped the truck and shot her. They separated all the women and children, and they were put on wagons and taken away. That was the last time I saw my mother and my sisters. The trains took all the women and I did not have time to say goodbye.” Harry, a retired dentist, is now one of a handful of Holocaust survivors who visit schools to tell their stories. 

He said: “People say it can’t happen again but it did, in Cambodia, in Europe, Serbia and now, as we are seeing, in Syria with Aleppo. That is why I talk to the schoolchildren, so they can hear the story. It is my story, it is a living history.” Harry also took part in a question and answer session and received a standing ovation after his talk. The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 was How can life go on? with candles lit at the event in memory of those who lost their lives during the Holocaust and other genocides".

Councillor report to West Ham Ward: February 2015

This is my written report as a Newham Councillor to West Ham ward Labour Party branch which meets every month. The ward thought to save time they would prefer written reports from Cllrs of which they could then ask questions.

Councillor Report to West Ham Ward

WEST HAM WARD LABOUR PARTY tel: 020 3373 **** or email John.Gray@newham.***.**

Ward meeting 5 February 2015

On 7 January I attended the Executive meeting of the Local Authority Pension Forum (LAPFF).  The forum believes that Council Pensions funds are being misled by accountancy firms about the profits and risks of companies they invest in.  They are taking advice by Cherie Blair QC on the matter and are lobbying the Financial Regulator for changes.

On 8 January I attend a finance committee meeting then full governors meeting of Rebecca Cheetham Nursery School, E15.  At the meeting the recent OFSTED report was discussed. The governors and staff were pleased that the school had gone from “requires improvement” to “Good” but were disappointed that they only narrowly missed obtaining “Outstanding”.

I did then go to the West Ham ward meeting that evening but it had finished early

On Saturday 10 January I held my surgery at Vicarage Lane community Centre. I had 3 cases - all involving housing issues.

On Wednesday 14 January I met with the Chief Executive of Newham Council, the Director of Finance and the Monitoring Officer with other Cllrs who are very concerned at the East Ham Campus overspend and unlawful expenditures.

On Wednesday 21 January I attended the AGM of LAPFF.  Please note that I am no longer a Newham Council member on the LAPFF and have reverted to being a trade union representative.

On Thursday evening 22 January I held a surgery at Brassett Point. Cllr Whitworth and I had swooped surgeries at my request due to a clash. I had one resident attend regarding a complicated planning dispute with a neighbour.

On Friday 23 January I meet up with the new engagement manager for West Ham and Stratford at the Stratford Library with Cllr Whitworth.

On Tuesday 27 January I attended a very moving and dignified remembrance event for Holocaust Memorial Day in the Old Town Hall in Stratford which was attended by our MP Lyn Brown.

In the evening I attended the Overview and Scrutiny commission meeting at East Ham Town hall where we scoped out our investigation into East Ham campus overspend and governance failures.

On Monday 2 February I attended a very interesting meeting of local Cllrs on Social media at  Coffee7 in Forest Gate. Publishing my Councillor reports on social media was one of the outcomes. 

Holocaust Memorial Day - Old Town Hall, Stratford

Yesterday I went to a Holocaust Memorial Day, ceremony organised by Newham Council which took place in the Old Town Hall in Stratford, E15. 

The hall was packed with residents and pupils from local schools. 

It began with a choir singing a specially composed song by Craig Murdoch, performed by ECaM stars and orchestra called "Remember me".

The Newham Chief Executive Officer, Kim Bromley-Derry welcomed the audience. The Mayor, Robin Wales, spoke next on the Holocaust and its relevance to Newham. He described us gathering here today as an act of defiance against fascism and that personal stories remind us that real people lie behind the figures. Many countries including Britain during the Second World War did not do enough for refugees fleeing the Nazi's. We must never forget this when we think about refugees who are fleeing persecution today. Nor should we forget the contribution that modern day refugees have made to Newham.

The testimony was by death camp survivor, 83 year old Rudi Oppenheimer. Rudi was born in 1931 to a German Jewish family in Berlin. They were not religious and lived a comfortable middle class life and were proud to be German. 

As a young child Rudi was unaware of the political persecution of Jews in German by the Nazi Government. His father eventually moved to Holland while the rest of the family went to London where his sister was born. They all later joined their father in Holland thinking they would be safe. 

In May 1940 Germany was at war with Britain and France and they invaded Holland and quickly overran the country. Soon after this the Germans began to persecute the Jews in Holland.  

The discrimination that Rudi and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazi in Holland, was in one way, even more shocking than being sent to a death camp.  In a series of laws they were forbidden from working, using public transport, from going to sport clubs, libraries, theatre, non Jewish shops and they had to wear yellow stars on their clothes at all times. Rudi even had his bicycle taken away from him. Once the Nazi had got away with de-humanising Jews, then it is no surprise that they ended up murdering them.

All Jews in Holland were forced to live together in Amsterdam under a strict curfew. Ironically, Rudi thinks that as a child he may have played in the same street as Anne Franks. She was to eventually die in the same death camp that he and his family was to end up in.

Eventually after waiting weeks for the "knock on the door" they were told by German Police to leave their homes for "Resettlement to the East". They were sent by train to a transit camp. Unbeknown to the family, both sets of Grandparents were sent to death camps and gassed when they arrived.

Rudi believes that one of the reasons why he survived, when so many didn't, was that his sister was born in Britain and the Germans thought the family could be exchanged for German nationals held in Britain. They were known as "Exchange Jews".  After 7 months in the transit camp they were still sent to the infamous Bergen Belsen death camp. They were greeted by shouting SS Guards, barking dogs, sadist commandants, heavy labour and a starvation diet.

At the camp both his parent died of brutality and disease but he and his brother was able to live, thanks to Rudi working in the camp kitchen and stealing food. He always felt guilty about this since he was in effect stealing food from other inmates but he and his brother would have not survived otherwise. 

Belsen was the camp where there was so many dead bodies when the British freed it in 1945 they had no choice but to use bulldozers to push the bodies into huge pits. Some 70,000 people died there. 

After a series of near misses, Rudi, his brother Paul and sister Eva were liberated and eventually arrived in London to live with their Uncle.  Rudi had a successful career with oil company BP. Paul wrote a book about their life called "From Belsen to Buckingham Place". 

In the Q&A that followed Rudi was asked if he "forgave" those who were responsible for what happened to him? He said he did not forgive but he doesn't hate them anymore. The only people who could forgive are his parents since they were the  ones who had really suffered.  He did however believe in God.

Next there was modern dance performance by pupils of Lister Community school and then readings by pupils from Kensington Primary school and Kingsford Community school including "First they came..." by Paster Martin Niemoller

" First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
  Because I was not a Socialist.
  Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
  Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
  Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
  Because I was not a Jew.
  Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me".

Followed by a Candle lighting ceremony led by the Mayor, David Gold (Chair of West Ham FC), Lyn Brown MP (see photo), John Biggs AM, John Barber (Representative Deputy Lieutenant) and Rudi.

Finally, a minute of quiet reflection and then classical music from local tutors.

Afterwards, there were some tears from some while others in the hall were talking to each other and  sharing stories and even photos of their own relatives. There was a massive queue to buy signed copies of "From Belsen to Buckingham Place" and Rudi sold all his copies. I will get one from the website.

It was quite an emotional event and it is not just about the history.  As Rudi reminded us since the Second World war there has been other holocausts in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnian. Not only should we never forget what happened but we must always be on guard against intolerance, bigotry and fascism in all its guises.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day which is held on the anniversary of the liberation by Soviet Troops in 1945 of  the Auschwitz concentration camp.

This morning the new Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke on "Thought for the Day" (Radio 4 "Today" programme) about his Great Uncle, head of a Jewish seminary in Lithuania who while trying to arrange an escape route for his family and students from advancing German forces became separated. He only found out at the end of the second world war that his students, staff, his wife and their 10 children were all murdered by the Nazi.  A shocking story.

We must never forget the unique evil of all forms of fascism.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

Today (27 January) is Holocaust Memorial Day.  This date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.

On Friday morning I was travelling through Liverpool Street Railway station and the statutes of the "Kindertransport" children next to the main ticket office, reminded me of the 9,500 children who were allowed to flee Germany before the Second World War and live in Britain.

Many of them arrived in Liverpool Street station from Harwich. The vast majority would have died in German concentration camps if they had not been able to flee. Many never saw their parents again.

While 80% of the children were Jewish, the rest were children of anti-fascists who also knew what would happen to their children if they did not escape.

Newham Council and the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, held an event on Friday morning to unite communities and reflect on the horrors of Nazi atrocities.

On Saturday I received through the post, the latest edition of UK anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight.  Reading in the magazine the accounts of current fascist activity in the UK, you must be amazed and sickened, that there are still Nazi's in our country, such as the those in the BNP, who think there is nothing wrong with mass murder and turning dead bodies into lamp shades and soap.

Holocaust Memorial Day - Suitcase Kindertransport

This photograph is from the statue commentating the Suitcase Kindertransport in the aptly named Hope Square outside Liverpool Station in East London. 

Before the Second World War nearly 10,000 children (mostly Jewish but also many children of left wing opponents) were sent to the UK from Germany and saved from being murdered by the Nazi.  Many of them arrived in the UK via Liverpool Street Station.

On the 27th January it was Holocaust Memorial Day.  In many Newham schools they held workshops and ceremonial remembrance events.  In Essex Primary School in Manor Park, Ruth Barnet, who was actually one of these Suitcase Kindertransport children who fled to safety and who then went to this school, gave a speech to the school together with our Mayor, Sir Robin Wales. Check out also The Newham Mag (page 14)

The original tale of the Suitcase Kindertransport has been one of the top ten posts of the week on my blog for quite a while.

Update: Check out more photos of statue on Facebook here

Holocaust Memorial Day - Stand Up to Hatred

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. I have just become the 24,755th to light a virtual "candle of remembrance" on its web site. Please visit this site.

On a more practical point I also received today this “Face book” message from Hope Not Hate.

“Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is an international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides - Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda to name but a few.It commemorates the victims and honours the survivors of the Nazi genocide as well as more recent genocides, in an effort to ensure that these unimaginable horrors are neither forgotten nor indeed repeated, either in Europe or anywhere in the world ever again.

This year's Holocaust Memorial Day is based on an important theme - to stand up against hatred. And I'm writing to ask you to join me in doing just that. Over the past few years, Nick Griffin has made a series of disgusting and degrading statements about the Holocaust.

To call him to account we've launched a petition to demand that he retracts these horrendous statements.We'd like you to sign it -http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/apologisenow

While on trial for incitement to racial hatred, Griffin wrote -"I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated or turned into lamp shades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the earth is flat ... I have reached the conclusion that the 'extermination' tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and latter witch-hysteria."

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday Griffin added: "It's well known that the chimneys from the gas chambers at Auschwitz are fake, built after the war ended."

We need your help in fighting back against these disgusting and degrading lies. The Holocaust remains a horrific scar on humanity's conscience - but the Nazi message of hate still remains a corrosive force within our society. It damages all of us. Only by confronting and defeating this hate can we build a country based on humanity and justice. We must fight his lies and he must be held to account.

Please join our campaign to get Griffin to publicly retract these remarks and then invite your friends to do the same.

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/apologisenow

Thank you.HNH