Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 32 December 2014 (Page 2)
Holocaust Memorial Day
[Ed note: Every year, Middlesbrough Council organises a ceremony to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. This year’s service, which also commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, was held on 27 January 2015 at St Barnabas Church]
Gwen Lamb writes:
I just got back from St Barnabas Church, where around 200 people turned up (including Audrey Brechner and Bernard Reubens and his brother, together with a couple of Israelis and a couple who go to Darlington Reform). The Council [Ed note: Susie Blood] produced a booklet with photos of my family, which I prepared for them and also items from our M'bro kehilah website.
I did an interview for BBC local Radio, in which I said that I am proud to be Jewish and that it's also very important for everyone to have an identity. The event was also covered by Tyne Tees TV news cameras. I read the memorial prayer Keyl Maleh Rachamim and Martin Levinson from Newcastle recited kaddish. Then 70 of us lit 70 candles. Six Roma pupils sang traditional songs accompanied by a guitar. The service concluded with some stirring words by the Bishop of Whitby, Rt. Rev. Paul Ferguson. This was followed by a very kindly-prepared buffet for everyone by the ladies of the Church.
It was a very moving one hour service. They showed my mishpochah on a big screen above, as well as photos of happier times of M'bro kehilah from before we sold our shul. The booklet contained photos of my family who were shot in Lithuania and some heart-breaking and wonderful stories of others who survived.
Please G-d, this atrocity will never happen again.
Gwen Lamb Middlesbrough
[Ed note: Here is the booklet prepared by Susie Blood. As well as the material referred to above by Gwen, there is a remarkable item written by Susie herself which relates how her great grandmother, at great risk to herself, saved a Jewish family from certain death during the Nazi occupation of Holland.]