This is marked nationally on January 27 each year. The date was chosen by the Government as it is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Allies. This year a number of events took place in Hastings to mark the event.
On Thursday January 22, the Education Action Zone ran a workshop at St Mary in the Castle, with 200 pupils from All Saints and St. Paul's schools taking part. The programme included poetry, dance and drama focussed on the Holocaust, and pictures painted by the children on the subject were also on display.
Saturday January 24 saw the annual Holocaust Memorial Day service at St Mary in the Castle. Supported by Hastings Borough Council, civic guests included the Mayor and Council Leader Jeremy Birch.
Dr Bruce Eton, a German Jew who was forced to leave his homeland during the 1930s and much later became a consultant gynaecologist in Hastings, sang in Hebrew during the service, and gave the final blessing - a reminder that the events of seventy years ago are still very relevant to some local people today. Regular readers of 'About' may recall the article on him in the Spring 2001 issue; Dr Eton was awarded the 'Order of 1066' on Hastings Day (October 14) 2002.
We were reminded, too, that others suffered persecution at that time :- disabled people, homosexuals, gypsies ...
But the Service was about much more than the horrors of the Second World War. Organised by the Hastings and District Jewish Society, the Christian Friends of Israel and the Council of Christian and Jews, it contained a powerful message that the 'ethnic cleansing' in Germany was neither the first nor last of its kind in the twentieth century. This was illustrated by Albert Manoukian, an Armenian who described his grandfather's flight from Turkey in the First World War, and Alfred Gasoba, who gave a first hand account of the tribal conflict in Rwanda, which has taken place in the last decade.
The service also included readings from children from St Paul's School on the Holocaust, which really moved the audience of around four hundred. The Hastings Area Clarinet Choir provided a musical interlude, and, as a symbolic gesture narcissus bulbs were handed out to the audience. These were a reminder of the hardship of war, when many were reduced to eating bulbs to live, but also a symbol of hope, and new life, for the future.
Michael Foster, MP, gave a strong speech, which also focussed on the Rwandan conflict. His story about the young girls at a secondary school who refused to divide into their tribal groups when the militia came - because they said they were all Rwandans - and so all died, won't be forgotten, nor will his message of 'Never Again'.
In the afternoon, the Gizmo DIY Theatre Company, a community theatre group, staged 'Am I Guilty?'. This is a powerful musical drama by locally based Pat Fisher, set in the dismal days of the 1930s. Like the service in the morning, this poignant play held important messages - "Never Again"
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This page last updated: 22/04/2004