LEWES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY GROUP
 
 
Links
Click on the heading to go to the website

Thoughts on 'Ordinary People
The theme for HMD 2023 was Ordinary People. Lewes HMD Group member Peter Holmes has written a short reflection on Christopher Browning’s book Ordinary Men.

You can read the piece by clicking on this link.


Lewes HMD Group YouTube Page

Our own stories and events related to marking the Holocaust and other genocides

These feature:

Haunted A song composed and performed by Lewes resident Jane Smol. It was written in 1995 after being woken one morning by a voice on the radio talking about the liberation of Auschwitz 50 years previously. It made her think of her grandfather who had been killed there, and about her father who had been hiding in the house when his father was taken away. It also reminded her of what she had felt when, as a young child, she was first told that her grandfather had been killed just because he was Jewish.


BBC Southeast Today 27 January 2022 Interview with Jackie Stimpson, Simon Confino and Tim Locke – three Lewes residents talk about their family experiences: Jackie’s family were refugees from Armenia during the genocide, Simon’s family were victims of the Holocaust and it was years before he found out the story, and Tim’s mother’s family were made homeless on the night before Kristallnacht.

The story of my war diary: a Sarajevo family flees from the bombs
Ivana tells how when a teenager in 1992 she started a diary when and her family were forced out of war-torn Sarajevo in former Yugoslavia, and how she then experienced extraordinary kindness from strangers and began a new life in another city.

Be the light in the dark
A compilation of music, songs and poetry for Lewes Holocaust Memorial Day 2021.

The Holocaust legacy
A panel discussion on Zoom organised by the Lewes Holocaust Memorial Day Group for HMD 2021, on why the Holocaust is relevant today.

A Theresienstadt go-between
A moment of moving humanity in the nightmare of the Holocaust : days before Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, Tim Locke discovers the link between his grandparents – being deported to their deaths in Nazi camps in 1942 – and Alois Weiner, a Bavarian businessman.

Saving Jews in India
The remarkable story of how Alfred Rosenfeld established the Jewish Relief Association in India and selflessly assisted many Central European Jews escape and settle in India during World War II. Told by his granddaughter, Lewes resident Jess Rowland.

Escape from Nazi-occupied Poland in 1939
The dramatic story of Chaïm Messinger's escape from the Nazis as they invade Poland in 1939, told through his diary and read by his niece, Michèle.

Saviours in Dachau
Tim Locke tells the stories of two Aryan families in 1930s in the town of Dachau who helped his mother's family when persecuted by the Nazis. And how after the war his mother was called on to assist one of them who faced an uncertain future at the hands of the Allies.

Wlodka Robertson's escape from the Warsaw Ghetto
An interview for Lewes Holocaust Memorial Day Group: Wlodka Robertson tells of her escape from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, and how she survived by being hidden with Polish families until being reunited with her father after the war ended.

Tim Locke’s blog about Ruth’s family
Perspectives on family stories: Görlitz, Dachau, the Kindertransport and the Holocaust. Lewes HMD member Tim’s blog about his mother’s family, told through the vast archive of letters, diaries, photos and other artefacts she left after her death in 2012. The entire collection is going to the Imperial War Museum in London.
Click here to read the blog.


Lewes HMD Facebook page
A forum for relevant items on the theme Holocaust and other genocides, and any newsworthy items or comments. Click here to apply to join the group.

National organisations
Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) Trust
The national body for promoting and commemorating HMD. The website explains the One Day theme used for 2022, and has a large amount material on the Holocaust and other genocides, under ‘resources’  including short films to watch, images, audio and life stories. 

Generation 2 Generation
Charity offering free talks to schools and adult groups given by second-generation Holocaust survivors. Publishes a free newsletter.

Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR)
Provides social and welfare services to Holocaust refugees and survivors nationwide, and with a monthly newsletter available online.

’45 Aid Society
Fascinating website of the organisation that took in hundreds of children who had been incarcerated in Nazi camps and ghettos and were brought to Britain after the war.

Imperial War Museum, London
The superb Holocaust Galleries and Second World War Galleries each merit a day’s visit in their own right: this is the only museum in the world to have linked galleries covering both subjects. Free admission, but advance booking recommended; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. See also here about the concept of the display in an hour-long talk by Head of Content of the Holocaust Galleries, James Bulgin.

Harwich Kindertransport Memorial appeal
A project to the create a new memorial statue and a supporting educational programme in the town which was the main point of entry for most of the nearly 10,000 children of the Kindertransport between 1938 and 1939. 

Other
Hella Pick’s talk for HMD 2022
Journalist Hella Pick’s talk for HMD at the University of Sussex.
 
Manfred Goldberg BEM - A childhood during the Holocaust 
Manfred Goldberg’s talk at the University of Sussex for HMD 2023 about his experiences in the Holocaust.