Holocaust Memorial Day
On the 27th January, Holocaust Memorial Day was celebrated in the Croydon Town Hall. Four students, Miss Higham and I (Kathryn Layne, Salmaan Ali-Armit, Alex Satter, Abisola Adifoye and Katherine Brown-Antay) were invited to learn from this event. We travelled in a cab and arrived just in time to see the mayor and other leaders sign the book of remembrance, others were allowed to sign the book after or they can light a candle for respect.
A little while after that, we went inside a hall where there were many chairs and an upstairs view of the stage and the main hairs with microphones. As our group of six were placed in the upstairs seats, we were waiting for the other people to sit down. As our entrance music, we had Old Palace School playing the piano and the violin. Then we had a welcome from the Mayor and Councillor Graham Bass and also had an introductory speech by Councillor Richard Chatterjee, Deputy Cabinet Member for Communities and the Big Society.
We listened to a very moving, emotional speech by one of the Auschwitz Holocaust survivor Rachel Levy. She talked about her life as how she grew up as a Jew, how she was marginalised from society and how she had to escape some life-threatening situations. She also she talked about how her life changed after the war and where she ended up. It made us realise what we have in life and we should appreciate it because she had suffered so much. She pointed out at the end of her speech her daughter that was sitting there and also another few survivors there with her, inside that very room. Al of us looked down to see who they were, most of them proud Jews.
After the key part of the event she went to sit down; there came a presentation by Chloe Cole, an ambassador from the Lessons from Auschwitz Project. She made a very formal, informative speech about the pain from the Holocausts but also the pain that’s happening today. Ggenocide is still in our world, in our time, a very obvious example is in Darfur. Her speech was very through and the way she explained everything made it clear what had to be stopped.
Oasis Academy Coulsdon were also there and they performed Survivor stories and music. Both were very much applauded and they seemed to understand the concept of this event. So did Addington High School who performed Integrity-themed poems. A very moving piece was later performed by Local Resident Ted Smith-Orr that read out true-based War Stories. Then St. James the Great Primary School performed a dance and a short film of what their policies and thoughts about the Holocaust.
Councillor Richard Chatterjee closed the event and there was Tea and Coffee in the other room, where there was a display of the Primary School’s dedication for the holocaust. We went downstairs to sign the book in respect and took a few photographs with the Mayor and the Holocaust survivor.
A quote from Kathryn Layne, GCSE student: “It was very moving, also a very educational day and will benefit me in my History classes.”
Katherine B-A
