Pledge to stand up against prejudice and intolerance
Newham Council marked Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 with a commemorative candle-lighting event at Stratford Old Town Hall.
The King’s representative, Deputy Lieutenant Kim Bromley-Derry CBE, joined Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Interim Chief Executive Colin Ansell, invited speaker Michael Bibring, school children and other guests at the event, this year themed “Ordinary People”.
The theme was inspired by the words of Holocaust survivor and anti-Nazi campaigner Simon Wiesenthal, who said: “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”
Michael Bibring, whose own father, Harry, escaped the Nazi’s as part of the extraordinary Kindertransport, which rescued 10,000 Jewish children from Europe on the eve of World War II, told the audience about his Dad’s life.
Harry, who spoke at the 2016 Newham Holocaust Memorial event, had dedicated his life to educating young people about the importance of standing up to prejudice.
Michael said over his lifetime, it was estimated Harry had reached 20,000 young people in his talks and online seminars, something he was still doing right up to his death in 2019. He said:
“My father believed the more one is educated, the more one understands and stands up to prejudice and stamps it out at the beginning. It’s really easy when you’ve seen something you don’t quite like, it’s a bit prejudiced, but it’s not affecting you, so you don’t deal with it, you just let it go.
“That’s the easy thing to do. The hard to do is to stand up to it and say ‘No! That’s not right’.”
Introducing clips of his father speaking of his experiences in Vienna just before the War, Michael said: “The ordinariness of all this is what’s scary. “It’s people who became monsters who, two or three years before were perfectly ordinary sensible people.
“Everything that happened to and by these people was generated by ordinary people.”
In addition to remembering the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis, the event also commemorates more recent genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Dafur and Bosnia.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz told the attendees: “As time passes, the importance of this day grows. As the survivors die, the Holocaust is moving from living memory to vital history, which is why we must keep their experiences alive.
“It is why I pay tribute to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the Holocaust Education Trust, the Wiener Holocaust Library, the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre, and many other organisations and charities for the work they do to document, record and educate.
“The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “Ordinary People”. The ordinary people who were involved in all aspects of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution of other groups, and the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
“It was ordinary people who were perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers, and witnesses, and it was ordinary people, who were the victims.
“Ordinary people committed extraordinary acts, whether that was genocide or resistance. In marking this day, we join together in demonstrating our solidarity and resistance against antisemitism, racism and hatred.
“By joining together, we determine that each and every one of us, ordinary people, will stand up against prejudice and intolerance.”
Other speakers at the event included the Holocaust Educational Trust Young Ambassadors and Newham School Children who presented their readings on the theme “Ordinary People”.
Newham Music Bridging Sounds Orchestra broke the one minute silence with a wonderful performance of Gelem Gelem during the candle lighting ceremony.
The children of Newham played a central role in the event with readings and performances by; St Helen’s Catholic Primary School, Britannia Village Primary School, Chobham Academy Eastlea Community School, Essex Primary School, Ravenscroft Primary School, School 21, St Luke’s Primary School and Stratford School Academy.
