Holocaust Memorial Day – a personal account
Holocaust Memorial Day is always a difficult event for the Jewish
Community. We have our own day to mark the destruction of the temple,
the expulsion from Spain and the Holocaust. However if events are
organised we will support them if we are invited. This year there were
four events to my knowledge in Bristol.
Bristol City Council ran an event in the Council House on College Green. Jutta Mueller-Schnurr led a service under the portico of the Victoria Rooms. There was a Memorial Service in Park Row Synagogue for Sam Nirenburg, a concentration camp survivor. Sam, a much loved figure in the Jewish Community who died in December 2004, used to attend Cotham Parish Church’s Holocaust Day Ceremony initated by the CCJ (Council of Christians and Jews). This year members of CCJ and Bristol Interfaith Group were invited to Park Row for his Memorial Service.
Again The Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation was approached to participate on 27 January. Jo Schapiro was prepared to give of his time and his memories. I think Jo is now one of the last German Jewish refugees in Bristol who is also a member of a synagogue. I believe there are other refugees but I have no way of knowing them. Councillor Peter Hammond introduced the event sharing briefly his experience of his visit to Auschwitz.
Jo Schapiro was so extraordinary I wish I had recorded his talk. It was gentle and funny, generous and moving. He talked for over 30 minutes and though he had made extensive preparation and had written a speech – he spoke fluently and so beautifully – without referring to his notes. He spoke without resentment or anger about how the elected government in Germany had gradually closed in around the Jewish Community. First with arbitrary imprisonment and then with exclusion from education and business. He luckily was offered the chance to escape from a work camp in 1938. He left and came to England where he intially worked on a farm.
He said he had found work, love and freedom in this country and he was very grateful. As he finished his talk (I was his ‘minder’ and taxi driver you see). I knew the first question would be what happened to your family. His mother died at home. His father died in Auschwitz.
The audience was not nearly as big as it should have been. There were no state schools there because of supply teacher difficluties. There were a dozen young people there from Polacks House Clifton College. There were also a lot of young people from City of Bristol College. Some of these were Polish and there was one Iraqi.
During the workshops afterwards some interesting discussions took place. I just wish there had been more young people there to hear this man’s story and to learn how dangerous powerful men can be.
Effie Romain
Useful URL : http://www.holocaustmemorialday.gov.uk/
Bristol City Council ran an event in the Council House on College Green. Jutta Mueller-Schnurr led a service under the portico of the Victoria Rooms. There was a Memorial Service in Park Row Synagogue for Sam Nirenburg, a concentration camp survivor. Sam, a much loved figure in the Jewish Community who died in December 2004, used to attend Cotham Parish Church’s Holocaust Day Ceremony initated by the CCJ (Council of Christians and Jews). This year members of CCJ and Bristol Interfaith Group were invited to Park Row for his Memorial Service.
Again The Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation was approached to participate on 27 January. Jo Schapiro was prepared to give of his time and his memories. I think Jo is now one of the last German Jewish refugees in Bristol who is also a member of a synagogue. I believe there are other refugees but I have no way of knowing them. Councillor Peter Hammond introduced the event sharing briefly his experience of his visit to Auschwitz.
Jo Schapiro was so extraordinary I wish I had recorded his talk. It was gentle and funny, generous and moving. He talked for over 30 minutes and though he had made extensive preparation and had written a speech – he spoke fluently and so beautifully – without referring to his notes. He spoke without resentment or anger about how the elected government in Germany had gradually closed in around the Jewish Community. First with arbitrary imprisonment and then with exclusion from education and business. He luckily was offered the chance to escape from a work camp in 1938. He left and came to England where he intially worked on a farm.
He said he had found work, love and freedom in this country and he was very grateful. As he finished his talk (I was his ‘minder’ and taxi driver you see). I knew the first question would be what happened to your family. His mother died at home. His father died in Auschwitz.
The audience was not nearly as big as it should have been. There were no state schools there because of supply teacher difficluties. There were a dozen young people there from Polacks House Clifton College. There were also a lot of young people from City of Bristol College. Some of these were Polish and there was one Iraqi.
During the workshops afterwards some interesting discussions took place. I just wish there had been more young people there to hear this man’s story and to learn how dangerous powerful men can be.
Effie Romain
Useful URL : http://www.holocaustmemorialday.gov.uk/
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