Islanders commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day in Jersey
Future generations need to "keep the truth alive" of what happened during World War Two, a guest speaker at Holocaust Memorial Day in Jersey has said.The day honoured the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau - the largest Nazi concentration camp in Poland.A commemoration was held at the Occupation Tapestry Gallery in the Maritime Museum followed by the laying of wreaths at the Lighthouse Memorial.Dr Toby Simpson, director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, said it was important for people to learn about the island's history.
He said: "On the Channel Islands, like in other places that were occupied by the Nazis, there are fewer and fewer eyewitnesses who were able to tell their story directly."So, the responsibility to keep the truth alive is passing on to future generations, to our generation, and I think it's so crucial that we all remember where hatred can lead."So many people suffered and died, including here on the Channel Islands, and the scale of the Holocaust was so huge and its legacy so profound that it's crucial for us all to learn from it today."
The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied during the war. Jersey Heritage said hundreds of islanders were imprisoned in the island and Europe during the Occupation, and 21 of them died in German prisons and camps.Dr Simpson said the "legacy of history" and the impact was "still echoing today" in Jersey.He said: "It has been my privilege to meet many people whose parents and grandparents were themselves victims of the Nazis."In the context of a world where, unfortunately, people are still being persecuted simply for who they are and where war is ongoing, we need to remember the worst consequences of hatred and conflict."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Holocaust survivors' families visit former Kent refugee site
Families of Holocaust survivors have visited a Kent army base that helped rescue thousands of Jewish members of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) visited the Kitchener Camp at Sandwich on Thursday, which had been a haven from the Nazis for their parents and grandparents in group also saw an exhibition at the town's Guildhall Museum which had materials from the Kitchener Camp Project – an online resource bringing together records and family treasures to build a picture of the unlikely website's founder Clare Weissenberg described the day's visit as "profound". "Werner, my father, always kept a suitcase of letters, documents and photographs under the bed at home, all of which never saw the light of day," she said."I was in my early 20s when he died, which is when I found paperwork with the German eagle insignia stamped on it."So I began wondering about his story."Whilst volunteering at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, Ms Weissenberg met the author Clare Ungerson, who had been chronicling the lives of families just like hers. Hearing tales of some 4,000 others who had similarly fled to Kent to escape Hitler's campaign of ethnic cleansing was like "a cork being taken out of a bottle", she said."Afterwards I set up a Kitchener Camp website and got a great response from all over, with people sending me their own experiences."It really seemed to grab everyone's imagination and I gradually built a picture of this largely forgotten and overlooked piece of history."The Kitchener Camp rescue began in February 1939, seven months before the outbreak of World War Two and shortly after the Nazis coordinated a wave of antisemitic violence known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken rescue was founded and run by the same, mainly Jewish, aid organisations that funded and coordinated the far better known Kindertransport scheme. Stephen Nelken said his father Lothar had escaped fascism and a lengthy internment at a concentration camp. "I found his diary from when he left Germany and came to Kitchener Camp," said Mr Nelken, adding that the people of Sandwich had been "very welcoming" to his dad - even buying him and his fellow refugees a round of pints at the local pub."It's really important to know what went on and that it is passed onto his grandchildren as well," he Ungerson, whose book Four Thousand Lives is about the Kitchener Camp, said she was "surprised how few of these men's descendants knew anything of what happened to their fathers, grandfathers and uncles"."And, to be so at ease with having a camp of refugees in its midst, Sandwich must have been an extraordinary place," she added.
Daily Record
16 hours ago
- Daily Record
Scottish castle that once held infamous Nazi now reclaimed by nature
The historic Stirlingshire castle has fallen into ruin. New photographs show a Scottish castle that once housed an infamous, high-ranking Nazi. As seen in the images, the castle has been reclaimed by the surrounding nature. Situated near Drymen in Stirlingshire, Buchanan Castle was constructed in the 1850s. It acted as the home of the Montrose family until 1925. The castle was then sold, before opening as a hotel in 1930—with plans to implement a golf course. However, once World War Two broke out, these plans were abandoned and Buchanan Castle was repurposed as a hospital. On May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess flew to the UK in a self-described mission to negotiate peace. However, the plane carrying the Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler ran out of fuel and he parachuted to the ground. Hess was taken to Buchanan Castle and treated. He was then transported to the Tower of London, before being relocated to Mytchett Place in Surrey. Following a suicide attempt, Hess was moved to Maindiff Court Hospital. He then surrendered, and was moved to Nuremberg to face trial for war crimes in May 1945. After the war, Buchanan Castle briefly acted as the Army School of Education. However, after the roof was removed and parts of the castle were demolished in 1954, it began to fall into ruin. Proposals were put forth in 2002 and 2004 to convert the castle into apartment accommodation, but these were both denied. Today, while Buchanan Castle remains a B-listed building, signs around the site warn visitors not to enter for their own safety. The abandoned building has now been reclaimed by nature. The ruins have become overgrown by trees and vines in the years since its heyday. Read on for a collection of photos of Buchanan Castle as it appears today. More On World War 2 History Heritage Photography Stirling Albion FC
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Holocaust survivor Suzanne Ripton, who escaped Nazis, dies at 88
A Holocaust survivor who escaped the Nazis in 1940s France while still a young child and who later moved to the UK to make a new life has died at the age of Rappaport Ripton, was just six years old when her parents were arrested in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Paris, but she was saved by a neighbour who hid her for several weeks under her kitchen table. After living with foster families in rural France, Ms Ripton was brought to England after the war by the Red Cross and lived in London and more recently in Phillips, from the Leeds Jewish Housing Association, said Ms Ripton, who was last year awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM), would be "sadly missed". Ms Ripton was awarded the BEM for Services to Holocaust Education and Remembrance after being a founder member of the Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association, which later became the Holocaust Centre North in story is told in a permanent exhibition at the centre, as well as being preserved in its archive, and it forms part of learning sessions for both primary and secondary schools, including on the BBC Learning Zone. According to the Holocaust Centre North, Ms Ripton was at home in Paris in summer 1942 when French police and the SS came to arrest her parents, Millie and thanks to the courage of a neighbour, Madame Collomb, she was saved, first by being hidden under a kitchen table covered with a tablecloth for several weeks, before being moved to stay with families in the French Ripton never saw her parents again, later learning they had been taken to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and she eventually moved to England, living in both London and January this year, a message by Ms Ripton was read on her behalf at a Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Leeds Jewish Housing Association (LJHA) where she was a resident for 13 her message, she said: "The words I want to say are, 'never forget to remember'. "LJHA and its staff have made me feel as if I belong. I have come home. Thank you." 'Deeply creative' Reacting to news of Ms Ripton's death, Simon Phillips, LJHA community engagement officer, said she "always had a smile whenever we visited her home"."She was so kind to both residents and staff," he said."She was true 'eyshet chayil' - 'woman of worth' - and will be sadly missed."Dr Alessandro Bucci, director of Holocaust Centre North, said: "We will continue to honour Suzanne's memory and the legacy of her testimony. "She loved the arts and nature, and we will ensure these remain part of how we speak about her - as a survivor, and as the remarkable, complex, and deeply creative person she was."Dr Bucci said Ms Ripton was "a woman of extraordinary courage and quiet strength. May her memory be a blessing." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
