Holocaust call to action
I STOOD with scores of other people yesterday (Weds) in the bitterest of weather to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The chill wind and freezing rain seemed apt and helped those gathered remember the severe privations the victims of the Nazis murderous actio
I STOOD with scores of other people yesterday (Weds) in the bitterest of weather to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
The chill wind and freezing rain seemed apt and helped those gathered remember the severe privations the victims of the Nazis' murderous actions were forced to suffer.
For survivor Issy Hahn the memories are as raw as the weather - and his speech at the Holocaust Memorial Garden, Valentines Park, reflected that.
Issy told of being forced on a death march and how bodies were left strewn across the snow as the Nazi thugs pushed them on, killing the stragglers as they fell.
It was a gut-wrenching testimony - one which I have heard from Issy before - but none-the-less a story that must be told.
That's why Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin's call for every school in the borough to be represented next year is so vital.
Most Read
- 1 Illegal Dagenham puppy farm owners sentenced
- 2 Council tax rebates totalling £2m remain unclaimed, authority says
- 3 London among areas where drought is declared
- 4 Dagenham fire families receive thousands in donated cash
- 5 Item thrown from A13 bridge smashes windscreen and injures driver
- 6 Liz Truss visits Dagenham youth centre on Tory leadership campaign trail
- 7 'An incredible privilege’: Dagenham and Rainham MP Jon Cruddas on 21 years of service
- 8 ‘It’s like a warzone’: Extent of damage to Ballards Road homes on show following blaze which destroyed 14 houses
- 9 Campaign launched for young people anxious about A Level and GSCE results
- 10 Jailed: Eight east London offenders locked up in July
The Leon Greenman memorial, erected thanks to donations from Recorder readers, is there to serve that purpose. We hope teachers will see it as an aid to learning about the history of the most notorious event in modern history.
And the echoes of yesterday's ceremony, and its message, must reverberate come the May elections...
