Holocaust Memorial Day
The theme for 2012 is ‘Speak Up, Speak Out’.
Speakers will include Baroness Dr Julia Neuberger DBE (London) and Marion Blumenthal Lazan (New York).
Baroness Neuberger is a rabbi, social reformer and member of the House of Lords. In 2011 she took the role of Senior Rabbi at the West London Synagogue. Julia, who was made a Life Peer in 2004, has a special interest in Public Health,having been Chairman of Camden Community NHS Trust from 1993 until 1997 and then Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, an independent health charity. She has been a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Medical Research Council and the General Medical Council, a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust and the Imperial War Museum. Julia Neuberger is the author of several books on Judaism, women, healthcare ethics and caring for dying people. Not Dead Yet, a manifesto for old age, appeared in May 2008 and her latest book, Is That All There Is?: Thoughts on theMeaning of Life and Leaving a Legacy, was published in June 2011.
She will speak about ‘Holocaust Remembrance and why it is important for everyone’.
Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a Holocaust survivor born in Hoya, Germany, has published her autobiography under the title Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story (1996). In her memoir she describes how, following Hitler’s rise to power, the Blumenthal family – father, mother, Marion, and her brother, Albert – were trapped in Nazi Germany. They managed eventually to get to Holland, but soon thereafter it was occupied by the Nazis. For the next six and a half years the Blumenthals were forced to live in refugee, transit, and prison camps that included Westerbork in Holland and Bergen-Belsen in Germany. It took three more years of struggle and waiting before Marion, Albert, and their mother at last obtained the necessary papers and boarded ship for the United States. Their story is one of horror and hardship, but it is also a story of courage, hope, and the will to survive. Proceedings will include the screening of the documentary Marion’s Triumph: Surviving History’s Nightmare (2003) that is based on Marion Blumenthal Lazan’s story.
There will be a showing of the film: ‘Marion’s Triumph’ at 14.30