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return to headline pageScotland marks HMD
Several AJR members from Glasgow and Edinburgh attended the national Holocaust Memorial Day event held in The Caird Hall, Dundee when guests were addressed by Lord Provost John Letford and Mr John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and Rabbi Melchior, Chief Rabbi of Denmark.
Before the event guests had the opportunity to view the AJR Scotland Memorial Book.
Two Dundee school pupils shared their experiences of visiting Auschwitz and a group of disabled young people demonstrated their skill in performing a dance routine. Pupipls from the local school orchestra gave a rendition of the theme from Schindler’s List.
The keynote speaker was Fumiko Ishioka, a teacher and founder of the Tokyo Holocaust Museum. Having been offered a suitcase from the Auschwitz Museum, she and her pupils set out to find out as much as they could about the owner. This turned out to be a young girl called Hana Brady who perished in 1944. After considerable research they discovered that Hana’s brother, George Brady, had survived and lived in Toronto. He attended the event and spoke very movingly about his sister, how he looked after her during the incarceration in Terezin and the fact that she will be remembered through the film, Hana’s Suitcase, which is now available world wide and has been highly praised.
The 12th University of Glasgow Annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture was attended by many local AJR members and some Second Generation who heard Professor Nicholas Stargardt speak on the subject of "Hidden Children: Surviving the Holocaust". Individual child survivor stories were illustrated by original film taken by the host family during the war years and by photographs of documents in the original German.
A question and answer session, including drawing comparison with the lengthy time taken to interpret the experiences of children from World War II and the much speedier evaluation of children's experiences during the Bosnia conflict concluded the lecture.
East Renfrewshire Councils’ event took place at Eastwood Theatre and an audience of nearly 300 were treated to a fitting memorial. A large turnout of AJR members witnessed the event at which a number of schoolchildren from local secondary schools performed a play based on the poem “First they came” by Pastor Martin Niemoller.I n addition children from Eastwood High School recounted their memories of a recent trip to Auschwitz and showed a moving video of their trip.
The AJR Scotland memorial book was on display in the foyer of the theatre and was viewed by a large number of those attended the event