In Touch Quarter 2 - 2014

Hear my prayer, O LORD… For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers. My heart is
blighted and withered like grass… I am reduced to skin and bones... All day long my enemies taunt me; those
who rail against me use my name as a curse. For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears… You
will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favour to her… Psalm 102
Remembering the Holocaust
Corrie Ten Boom once said, “There is no pit too
deep that He is not deeper still”, yet for many
survivors of the Shoah, the memories are
still vivid. However, we must remember – and
we must tell the children. And so, every year,
hundreds of events for International Holocaust
Memorial Day (HMD) take place across the UK.
It’s a time for everyone to pause to remember the
millions of people who have been murdered or
whose lives have been changed beyond recognition
“The
memory
of the
Holocaust
is never
erased
by those
Survivors
who went
through it.
Nor should
it ever be
forgotten
by you and
me.”
during the Nazi persecution.
We can honour the survivors of
these times and be challenged
to apply the lessons of their
experience to our lives today.
Sixty nine years after the
liberation of Auschwitz, the soil
surrounding the Nazi death
camp remains so polluted by
the ashes of those who were
murdered and burned there
that little will grow in it. They
say that birds don’t even sing
in that place ~ even today. The
memory of the Holocaust is
never erased by those Survivors
who went through it. Nor
should it ever be forgotten by
you and me.
In the North East of England
following the success of 2013, Julia and I decided
we should put the powerful Holocaust Memorial
Photographic Exhibition back ‘on tour’. The
exhibition – entitled, ‘To Bear Witness and Return
to Life’ - is a series of photos with an insight of
the journey of Holocaust Survivors - from the
Ghettos, through the camps and onto liberation
and rehabilitation. The exhibition has been going
from 6 th January right through to May 2014 and has
been displayed in libraries, schools and churches.
Cities and towns have included: South Bank,
Ormesby, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Stocktonon-Tees,
Gateshead, Birtley and Scarborough.
The response too has been great with lots of school
children attending the exhibitions and excellent
feedback. We already have bookings for January
and February in 2015 with more to follow.
Our CFI Area Reps
have also been involved
in Holocaust Memorial
events. In Essex, Moira
Dare-Edwards was
extremely busy with a
showing of the play “Etty”
which was performed
at the HMD Meeting
of Commemoration in
Brentwood. Along with
by David Soakell
“We can honour
the survivors of
these times and
be challenged
to apply the
lessons of their
experience to our
lives today.”
4 // IN TOUCH