In Touch - 1st Quarter 2022

In Memory
“Never Forget”
Echoes of Sorrow
As 2021 ended we were
concerned that Covid would
disrupt many plans around
the UK to re-establish
annual commemorations for
Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 th January
2022. This day, amongst others, marks the
liberation of Auschwitz concentration
camp by the Soviet Union in 1945.
Last year, due to the pandemic, CFI UK
launched our first online memorial event
via YouTube. It was called ‘Light in the
Darkness’, was viewed live by hundreds
onscreen and now has almost 4,500 views.
Although uncertainty caused some CFI
events to be cancelled as early as December
2021, because of government restrictions
and concerns over smaller venues, some
went ahead or were adapted. We thank
the Lord for those who are committed and
were able to work resolutely, praying and
preparing fitting, dignified, educational
events that will continue the remembrance
of those lost and those affected by the
Shoah and Nazi persecution.
Strategic Provision
Before the Lockdown, a CFI supporter from
the Midlands named Rhona gave Julia
and David Soakell custodianship of some
excellent photographs taken in Auschwitz.
She knew a professional photographer
called John Guy, who over the years had
taken dozens of contemporary photos of
the Auschwitz Camp during several trips
to Poland. After some media coverage
and opportunities to share the photos,
Rhona lost touch with him, but felt the
work was too important to leave unseen.
After passing this unique collection of
photographs to Julia and David, she tried
tirelessly to find John, originally from
Liverpool, but without success. Even so,
an exhibition was compiled that gives
full credit to him. It is called ‘Echoes of
Sorrow’, after the title John used for this
work. From more than 80 photos, 13 have
been placed alongside a chronological
narrative which sets the reader in the camp,
showing its development and providing
historical insights through the mid-1940s.
This helps to portray the preciousness of
life, the resilience of the Jewish prisoners,
the heartlessness of the Nazi guards, the
retention of tradition whilst still in the
camp and the wholescale killing of every
generation of Jewish people.
We called one of the most poignant
photos ‘Mountains of Shoes’ – a staggering
portrayal of the lives wrenched from their
homes and security, cunningly taken to
new places for what many thought was a
temporary move, with suitcases and hope
– all dashed and discarded. Most of those
boots, shoes and sandals – of children,
mothers and fathers - represent a life
snuffed out in that very camp.
John Guy’s handwriting appeared on
another image – he had named it ‘Between
Life and Death’. It showed a snowy
scene between the barbed wire fence
beside one of the barracks and the outer
perimeter of the camp, overshadowed by
Library exhibit in the borders of Scotland, overseen by Philip Aitchison
the eerie spotlights used by the guards for
surveillance.
Julia was able to produce three identical
exhibitions with narrative of what took
place in the camp from its construction
to its liberation. In January 2022 the
exhibition was displayed in the Scottish
Borders, overseen by Philip Aitchison, as
well as in Middlesbrough, in Eastbourne,
East Sussex and in Brentwood, Essex, at
an event hosted by Moira Dare-Edwards.
Other memorial events were arranged by
CFI Links in the West Midlands, Stoke on
Trent and Rockwell Green Somerset.
Standing alongside
It is important for us as a ministry to stand
alongside the Jewish communities in our
nation – to show solidarity and the need to
remember the Shoah. We must never forget
but press on each year with educating
wider society to recognize the debt we
owe to the Jewish people and showing the
Church the need to repent for 2,000 years
of Christian antisemitism heaped upon
the Jewish people. We have a long way to
go, but we trust each of these events and
commemorations goes some way to repay
our debt and repair our relationship with
God’s chosen people.
8 IN TOUCH • 1 st Quarter 2022
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