The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day was ‘For a Better Future’.
Our Holocaust Memorial evening was held on Wednesday 22 January, and the venue was St Mary’s School, Benton. It had been many months in the planning. We were remembering the 30th Anniversary of the Bosnian genocide (1995 – 2025) and the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau (1945 – 2025).
We had two good speakers in Smajo Bešo OBE who had suffered as a child in Bosnia and David Gold, whose family had suffered under Nazi rule in Germany. However, painfully aware of the very difficult situation in the Middle East, we wondered whether many people would attend. Thankfully, a good number did turn up, and it was a very moving and thought-provoking evening.
Carol Cassidy, secretary of our Interreligious Relations team, introduced the event, mentioning, in particular, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and the Bosnian genocide making the point that, sadly, some people don’t seem to learn from history.
St Mary’s pupils and choir contributed greatly to the thoughtful atmosphere of the event by reciting the famous pieces, ‘First They Came’ by Pastor Martin Niemöller and ‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou. The choir sang beautifully, first, ‘An Irish blessing’ and later the official Jubilee hymn, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, which they had learned specially.
Smajo Bešo pointed out in his talk how, very sadly, a happy childhood in which Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims and Jews had lived together and celebrated each other’s festivals was completely changed by propaganda which demonised and dehumanised Bosnian Muslims. His father was arrested and imprisoned, and his mother had to flee with her three children, trying to find shelter and often close to starvation. However, she was keen to ensure that her children did not learn to hate, pointing out that there are good and bad in all groups of people. Eventually, Smajo and his family were lucky to be granted asylum in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is especially grateful to his teacher, who made the effort to teach the Bosnian words to a song to her class, so that he felt included.
David Gold also pointed out that the Jewish community in Germany were fully integrated into society and had played their part in the German army during the First World War. However, when Hitler came to power, there began a series of punitive measures against Jews, which made life very difficult. This was fuelled by Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda. Luckily, David’s immediate family managed to find sanctuary with a family here in the North-east, although his father was interned for a time as an enemy alien. Sadly, a number of his wider family perished in the Holocaust.
In his reflection, Bishop Stephen Wright referred to St Paul’s letter to the Romans, which talks about Abraham ‘hoping against hope’. Abraham is, of course, a figure who is known and honoured by Jews, Muslims and Christians as ‘our father in faith’. In this Jubilee year, we are encouraged to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, and that is what he encouraged us to focus on.
The lighting of the Remembrance candles was a solemn and significant moment, carefully organised by Graham Wilkins. The final candle was lit by a pupil, signifying passing on the task of remembrance to the next generation.
Rabbi Aaron Lipsey then sang the very moving Jewish memorial prayer in Hebrew (having given us the translation in English). Bishop Stephen Wright then led all present in the Universal prayer for peace, which finishes with the words:
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe.
It was an event which pointed out the dangers of dehumanising particular groups and the horrors it can lead to. However, on a positive note, it was good to know that both Smajo and David’s families had found help and support here in the North-east of England. Let’s hope and pray that the people of our area can continue to offer support and sanctuary to people fleeing persecution and trauma.