Events for Holocaust Memorial Day 2025
Words and music: For a Better Future
Saturday 25 January 13.30 (doors open 14.30) till 17.00 Trinity St John Sub Castro Church, Abinger Place, Lewes BN7 2QA. Retiring collection for Lewes Refugee Support Group (formerly LOSRAS).
Entrance is free; no booking required. (Note this is not a church event; this venue has been hired for the purpose.)
Introduction by Imogen Makepeace, Mayor of Lewes.
Our two speakers
Glimmer of Hope: The story of Naomi Blake - Sculptor and Auschwitz survivor.
Anita Peleg tells the remarkable story of her mother Naomi, deported to Auschwitz where several family members were selected for the gas chambers. Following forced labour in a bomb factory and escape from a death march Naomi rebuilt her life as a sculptor, and today her work promotes understanding between faiths. Anita is a speaker for Holocaust education charity Generation 2 Generation (G2G) that enables descendants of Holocaust survivors to present their family stories to a range of audiences.
Anita Peleg presenting her story, with photos of her mother and the gateway to Auschwitz-Birkenau
A teacher’s story
Joanna Clarke is Head of History at Hurst College and has taught Holocaust education for fifteen years. She has run multiple educational trips on this topic, including to Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. Her talk will explore how, as we get further from the Holocaust, we can try and get closer to the truth. Moving away from a depersonalised narrative of victimhood, her work with students draws on diverse personal stories, such as pictures by children or documents about the fates of teenagers from one class.
Music
Michael Potter (guitar and vocals) and Bjiorn Dahlberg (clarinet) of Lewes-based Movingsounds, with a range of music.
Children’s event: talk and workshop
Sunday 26 January, Studio, Depot cinema Pinwell Road, Lewes BN7 2JS,11.00-12.30 (talk) and 14.00-15.00 (workshop). Free event but please book tickets via Depot cinema. Ticket needed for each part of the event.
For children aged 8-11 (parents welcome to stay). Author
Miriam Halahmy (
miriamhalahmy.com) gives a talk about her children’s novel
Saving Hanno: a Refugee Boy and his Dog, about a boy who comes to England on a Kindertransport and has to save his dog. The talk will be followed by a fun, interactive writing workshop about how it feels to be a refugee in a foreign country. Miriam will have some of her books for sale at a discount price.
Vigil for Holocaust Memorial Day
Monday 27 January 18.00, outside on Cliffe Bridge, Lewes. Free, all welcome.
We hold our traditional lantern-lit vigil, lasting 30–40 minutes, on Cliffe Bridge. Prayer for the dead, readings, short speeches and moments of contemplation.
Films for HMD at Depot cinema
Judgment at Nuremberg (PG; USA, 1961, 183 mins)
Sunday 26 January, 15.00. £10/£5 under 25 or those on benefits
Highly acclaimed fictionalisation of one of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals conducted after the Second World War, where supporters of the Nazi German government stand accused of crimes against humanity. Directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and others.
“It raises complex questions, resists easy answers, and leaves the viewer keen to think and know more. For those reasons, it’s an exceptionally good historical film – and a haunting one.” The Guardian.
Judy Garland in Judgment at Nuremberg
A Real Pain
(12A; USA 2024, 90 mins; various screenings, enquire at Depot for times/dates)
Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin star in an Oscar tipped personal comedy. A powerfully funny, emotionally resonant dramedy about two American cousins who visit Poland for a Holocaust tour to honour their dead grandmother.
“Eisenberg’s accomplished direction strikes a delicate balance between irreverence and pathos, between pacy, quickfire comedy and the moments in which the confluence between the past and the future weighs so heavily that it’s hard to breathe.” The Guardian
Our Chair, Tim Locke, will be at the screening at 20.15 on Wednesday 29 January and to give a short illustrated talk about his own family visits to Dachau and what it's meant to him.
Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain
Statement from the group
The war in the Middle East is complex and tragic. We grieve for the innocent lives being lost on all sides, and hope for a peaceful solution in the near future.
We hope that by remembering the Holocaust and other genocides and by recounting what happened to individuals who suffered we can reinforce the message of our common humanity.