Shropshire marks Holocaust Memorial Day
The 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is being commemorated in Shropshire today.
At 9.30am this morning a special candle created by a world-renowned artist will be lit at Church Stretton School as part of a national initiative that sees 70 specially-designed candles at Holocaust Memorial Day events across the UK.
Peter Mould, a year 9 pupil at the academy who is related to Holocaust survivors, will light the candle to begin a moment of reflection honouring the survivors of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.
At noon, a special tree planting ceremony will take place at Mereside Primary School in Shrewsbury. The short ceremony will include candle lighting and a memorial prayer, and is supported by the South Shropshire Interfaith Forum and the Shrewsbury Inter Faith Forum.
In Oswestry, an artistic commission Moving Portraits will be on display for a day at Oswestry Library.
Moving Portraits features six portraits of survivors of genocide who now live in the UK. The portraits show the survivors in their homes, holding a photograph or object that helps them to share their story. The images feature an element of movement within a still photograph and were created by artist Will Head.
At 7pm at this evening a special service will take place at The Methodist Church, Watling Street South, Church Stretton. The event is organised by the South Shropshire Inter-Faith Forum, and will feature reflections on Harry Bibring’s testimony, the Righteous Muslims exhibition, a time to remember Holocaust victims and the victims of all genocides, and will also include a relighting of the candle and opportunities for questions and answers.
Telford & Wrekin Council is holding a civic ceremony to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at its Addenbrooke House offices. The event will be hosted by Telford and Wrekin’s deputy mayor Councillor Amrik Jhawar and will also be attended by local people, community groups, faith organisations, school children and borough, town and parish councillors.
Tomorrow, Polish-born Mala Tribich is visiting the borough from her London home and will be giving a talk.
As part of her visit, she will meet noted Wellington author George Evans – who was part of the British 11th Armoured Division’s liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where thousands of people died including the teenage Dutch diarist and writer Anne Frank.
Mala Tribich’s will give a talk on her experiences during the Second World War. This includes how she was hidden by a Catholic family, the ordeal of being in ghetto, being incarcerated in a slave labour camp and finally ending up at the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she very nearly died in a rampant typhus epidemic.
Councillor Kuldip Sahota, Telford & Wrekin Council’s leader, said: “It is a rare thing this many years on from the Second World War for the survivor of a concentration camp to be meeting one of their liberators for the first time and so it will be a special moment.
“We always hold events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in Telford and Wrekin and this year’s promises to be even more memorable than it usually is as a result of Mala and George meeting.
“They both have a harrowing story to tell of the horrors that occurred at Bergen-Belsen. It will serve as a reminder to everyone of what people went through and help keep the memory alive.”
Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said:
"HMD is about learning from the past to build a better future; it is about promoting equality, respect and understanding. This year, we are asking people to share the stories of those affected by genocide, to ensure their legacies live long into the future and to keep the memory alive."
