Warwick community to mark Holocaust Memorial Day with poetry, readings and school projects

The community in Warwick will once again be marking Holocaust Memorial Day this month. Photo shos Warwick Mayor for 2022/23 Cllr Parminder Singh Birdi laying a wreath at the war memorial during the remembrance service in 2023. Photo by Rick Thompson

The Warwick community will be once again be marking Holocaust Memorial Day next week with poetry, readings and school projects.

On Friday January 26, there will be a short service of remembrance at the Warwick War Memorial in Church Street at 11.30am.

This is being held day before the national event on Saturday January 27, so that local school children can be involved.

Henrietta Jefferies from King's High School’s sixth form will read a poem that she has written herself addressing this year’s theme which is the ‘Fragility of Freedom’.

There will be more readings by pupils from Myton School and Warwick School.

Aylesford School pupils will talk about their involvement in the 'Lessons from Auschwitz' project organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Children from other Warwick schools including Coten End School, Budbrooke and Evergreen schools will be attending the event, joining the MP for Warwick and Leamington Matt Western, the Mayor of Warwick, Cllr Oliver Jacques, and other civic leaders from the wider area for the short remembrance service.

Organiser Dave Sternberg said: “We are proud that this annual Warwick event has continuing strong support from the local primary and secondary schools.

"It is important that we remember and learn from the terrible events of the past, and never forget the Holocaust and other genocides of the past century.

"We mark and remember genocides such as those in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Darfur.

"Talking to the younger generations about the horrors of the past and the terrible things we humans can do to each other if we are not vigilant helps to ensure that we are always respectful and kind to others.”

Other events marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will include talks and assemblies in schools.

Several primary schools are due to have a Year Six assembly with a visiting speaker on the 'Kindertransport', which was when the UK managed to get 10,000 Jewish children out of Germany and Austria just before the outbreak of war.

This story is the subject of the blockbuster film “One Day” currently in cinemas.

At the Visitor Information Centre in the Court House, there will be a small exhibition to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day during the week starting January 22.