YOUNGSTERS helped mark Holocaust Memorial Day in Warwick.
Pupils from schools across the district gathered for the annual street event on Friday January 26, which featured a short service of remembrance, poems and readings.
The service, at Warwick War Memorial in Church Street, was held the day before the national event on Saturday January 27 so school children could be involved.
King’s High pupil Henrietta Jefferies read a poem she has written herself addressing this year’s theme – Fragility of Freedom.
There were also readings by pupils from Myton School and Warwick School. Aylesford School pupils talked about their involvement in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ project organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.
Children from other Warwick schools including Coten End School, Budbrooke and Evergreen school also attended along with Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western, Warwick mayor Coun Oliver Jacques and other civic leaders.
Organiser Dave Sternberg said, “We are proud that this annual Warwick event has continuing strong support from the local primary and secondary schools. It is important that we remember and learn from the terrible events of the past, and never forget the Holocaust and other genocides of the past century.
“We mark and remember genocides such as those in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Darfur. Talking to the younger generations about the horrors of the past and the terrible things we humans can do to each other if we are not vigilant helps to ensure that we are always respectful and kind to others.”
Other events marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz are talks and assemblies.
Several primary schools are due to have a special year six assembly with a visiting speaker on the ‘Kindertransport’ – when the UK managed to get 10,000 Jewish children out of Germany and Austria just before the outbreak of war.
This story is the subject of the blockbuster film “One Day” which is currently showing in local cinemas.
