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Video: Memorial Day 2012: Prayers for Holocaust dead
YOUNG and old paused on Thursday (26 January) to remember the millions of people killed during the Holocaust as a new memorial was unveiled in Peterborough.
The Holocaust Memorial Stone has been laid in a prominent position on a grassy bank in St John’s Square, beside St John the Baptist Church.
The city’s Holocaust Memorial Committee planned the temporary memorial, which they hope will one day lead to a permanent structure.
Cut from granite and tilted, it reads: “Remembering those who perished in the Holocaust in Europe 1939 to 1945 and subsequent episodes of genocide and racial intolerance, including India 1947 to 1949, Cambodia 1975 to 1979, Bosnia 1992 to 1995, Rwanda 1994, Darfur 2004. It shames humanity. No more!”
Mayor of Peterborough Cllr Paula Thacker laid the first wreath at the rectangular slab, following a blessing by Canon Gordon Steele, vicar of St John’s Church.
The Rev Steele said: “We pray that this might serve as testimony to the commitment of the people of this city to play our part in ensuring that such atrocities, which shame our humanity, happen no more.
“May this memorial stone be respected, and serve every day as a summons to us to build an inclusive and just society, in which all are honoured and cherished.”
Chuck Salamon (74), the administrator for the Peterborough Orthodox Hebrew Congregation, read an emotive mourners’ prayer in Hebrew during the blessing.
Mr Salamon, who lost family members at the hands of the Nazi regime, called the stone a physical reminder for the city that a Holocaust should not happen again.
He said: “The stone was an ambition of the committee since day one in 1997 and has come to fruition through the office of this present mayor.”
Cllr Thacker got in touch with an old school friend and now stone mason, Lorraine Cunningham, from Bourne-based Set In Stone, who agreed to create the memorial for free.
Children played a part in the service, which was timed to mark today’s International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Year 7 and 8 students from St John Fisher Catholic High School, in Park Lane, stopped shoppers in their tracks with their performance of street theatre at the Guildhall in Cathedral Square.
Their theme was ‘Speak Up Speak Out’ against discrimination.
Community representatives also delivered speeches during the service, including Brian Gascoyne of the Millfield and New England Regeneration Partnership, Sukaina Manji representing the Muslim community and Dr Dennis Guttmann of the Liberal Jewish Community.
Mr Gascoyne praised the service for being touching. He said: “I feel that here in Peterborough we can show the country and the world that we are an historic city of many languages and different cultures, but we are all one community.”
Memorial Day 2012
HOLOCAUST Memorial Day is commemorated nationally and internationally on January 27, the day the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated.
Peterborough has held a special service of remembrance on this day, offering residents the opportunity to reflect on acts of genocide throughout the world.
It has taken place in the UK since 2001 and was established in memory of victims of Nazi persecution. It provides an opportunity to remember victims of other acts of genocide.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
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harmesh
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 05:22 PMHolocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember lives lost during WWII at the hands of their persecutors. It is also a time for us to highlight the persecution and discrimination still taking place around the world today. Human Rights Watch published its annual report this week about the human rights situations in 90 countries around the world. These countries include – countries such as Iran, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Zimbabwe. This week, there has also been a unwelcome reminders that human rights are at risk even in our own country:---- •MPs published a report that finds officials carrying out deportations often use racist and offensive language, and that dangerous and unauthorised restraint techniques are still being used on deportation flights. So it appears racism and discrimination, on top of violent restraint techniques, are abundant in our returns system
bournetownharriet
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 01:40 PMI cannot belief the insensitivity or sheer ignorance of the page planner who chose to put an advert promoting the EFD UKIP on the same page as this wonderful tribute to Holocaust Memorial Day. While EFD UKIP or any other nationalist party would deny they were racist in their manifestos it cannot have escaped anyone's notice that they do not actively embrace a multi cultural community or an inclusive and just society. An apology please Evening Telegraph.
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